


Trying To Get Back

by D8ONO



Category: Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/EXTRA, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night (Visual Novel), Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: ABO, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Arjuna doubting Karna, Cheating, Cheating Arjuna, Divorce, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Multi, Omega Verse, Paternity test, Post-Divorce, Wrong test results
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-13 11:27:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18030848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/D8ONO/pseuds/D8ONO
Summary: DIY paternal test kit was so popular. It was told in the ads:20% of men will learn they are not the father of the child they are testing!Arjuna was given the test kit as a joke by Indra. But out of curiosity and mischeviousy, Arjuna tested it on his son. The results returned to him that his son was not his.





	1. Chapter 1

It was Christmas! Holiday season! Snow everywhere! Many things went to sale and so was the DIY paternal test kid. The test kit was so popular and so many people buying it. It was even in the TV shows abot couples breaking up because the father found out that his children weren’t his. He was raising other man’s children. Very sensational. Arjuna remembered he watched an episode of that ‘Not My Child!’ reality show when he couldn’t sleep one night.

Arjuna was a CEO of a software company. A young 28-years-old programmer and a very successful one. He started from making his own softwares and apps and it kept on success on row that he just made his own company. Thanks to Indra being a rich and successful lawyer, it was very easy for Arjuna’s life to flourish. He was a happy man in his eigth year of marriage with his beloved mate, Karna. And they had a son who was also eight. Yes. They had a shotgun marriage and Surya was super pissed when they got married. Oh, Arjuna, for one second, thought the sun-dad might kill him for knocking up his dear Karna. Thankfully, he was still alive. 

But nonetheless, Arjuna’s married life with Karna was a happy one. They loved their boy, planning to have another one in near future as their first son, Nitya, they named him, was big enough that it was the right time for them to have a young baby again. And Karna was a good and gentle mother. They had planned to score another baby at Karna’s next heat. They were a happy couple. Karna was really in love with Arjuna and had bonded with him anyway. And Arjuna had always been in love with Karna ever since their teens. Who said first love never worked?

Arjuna was driving home. He went to buy and line for the Christmas fried chicken bucket. He got three of them because they were a big family. How could he refuse on his dear son’s request on the Christmas chicken bucket?

When he was waiting for the green light behind a Rover when he looked out his window and saw the DIY paternal test pack ads board. The line tag in the big ads board at the street, showing three kids and a pair of couple. It said: ‘20% of men will learn they are not the father of the child they are testing! Three of these children are not his! So might be yours!’

The ads were everywhere. It striked Arjuna as funny, because there was no way Karna would cheat on him. But he did felt a bit sympathy for those fathers who found out their children weren’t his. Arjuna imagined how much devastated he would be if Nitya wasn’t his son. But it was all imagination because Arjuna’s life was a shine and warmth.

The traffic was a bit long because it was holiday but Arjuna managed to arrive right before the dinner because he went earlier. He had counted how much time he would need. From the traffic, shortcut routes, lining time. He wouldn’t be Arjuna if he hadn’t counted for these before hand. He took the buckets and went inside his parents’ house and was welcomed by his family at the dining table. Ah, Arjuna loved seeing his son waiting for him with a big wide smile. And Karna was beautiful too. Everyday Karna was the best. Arjuna had to admire his mate for a few seconds before he put down the chicken buckets at the middle of the dishes Surya had cooked for them.

They had fun at the table. Eating and chatting as a family. Arjuna, Karna and Nitya. Indra and Surya that had gotten together even before Karna and Arjuna got together. They were actually raised as brothers when they were teens. That was a big factor how they fell for each other. And Raikou. Raikou was not single. Maybe. She claimed she had a boyfriend, Kintoki, but she couldn’t bring him here for some reasons. 

And they exchanged gifts that night. Of course, being the only child in the family, Nitya got the most presents. Surya gave him two presents, Indra gave him six. One was cleary a card. Arjuna assumed it was a giftcard or something. Raikou gave him three boxes. And both Karna and Arjuna each have him one. The boy stacked the boxes with a wide grin. “Thank you!”

Both Arjuna and Indra couldn’t stop staring at their pale suns when they exchanged gifts. Surya was giving Karna some cooking pots. Their smiles were the prettiest. Indra was resting his chin with his left hand as he watched, thinking how his spouse was a vampire because Surya still looked very fresh and young despite of both of them were already fourty-seven years old. Surya standing on Karna’s side looked like they were brothers instead of parent and child pair.

“Thank you, papa-ue.” Karna thanked. He still called Surya that. The family was already used to it so they didn’t laugh at it. But Arjuna still found it awfully cute. Raikou gave Karna and Arjuna her handmade scarfs and gloves. She always gave homemade things.

And the others exchanged gifts too. Indra gifted one to his dear son too. It was a square box warped with nice flower papers and a ribbon at the top. “Here, for you, son.”

Arjuna didn’t trust Indra. Indra was not the most innocent man he had ever met. How many times had this man traumatized Arjuna as a child? He lost count. But a gift was a gift. And so Arjuna returned Indra’s fake —he was planning something— smile, with his own very fake smile as well. Father and son relationship. “Thank you, father.”

They went back to their homes after the midnight. The streets were still bright and filled with people celebrating the holiday. But Nitya was already asleep at the second row seat, with his presents right and left. He was sleeping at the middle with the scarf Raikou made for Karna and his ears muffle, she made it too. It was so warm and it was midnight so he just fell asleep. Karna looked behind and smiled at the scene. It was really, a great night. Everyone was happy.

When Karna turned away from behind, Arjuna sneaked a quick kiss to his lips. They were waiting for the traffic light again. Arjuna smirked smugly and Karna returned that with another kiss. Taking full chance of their son sleeping. Arjuna chuckled lightly. “Hey, let’s save that for later,” He teased, but kept his voice light enough so he didn’t wake the boy. “I’ll make you feel good.” He added, next to Karna’s right ear, totally in lewd tone.

“Let’s see about that.” Karna challenged. Eight years of marriage and they were still very lively. Karna was perfect. They spent the way to home talking about small things, while being careful for not making loud noises.

When they got home, it was about one at the morning. Karna woke Nitya up and the boy yawned widely. “We’re home. You can go to bed now.” 

Nitya blinked and walked out from the car to his room. Arjuna had already carried his presents to the house. He went back to his room, changed, and just went to bed. Continuing his sleep. He didn’t take off the scarf and mufflers. When Arjuna and Karna came to check on him, they joked on how cute their son was. “Let’s just leave those be.” Karna said and then Arjuna closed the boy’s door.

They went to their own room. From there, it was their own world. And Arjuna was a man of his words. He did make Karna felt good. Arjuna had memorized and learnt how to please his mate for the years they had spent together.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

The morning, Arjuna was the first one to wake up at seven. He kissed Karna’s cheek one time before he left the bed to make his coffee at the kitchen. He and his cup of coffee when to his office. A small room next to the main entrance door. He worked here for his projects. He had his three screen super computers and bookshelves. It had Karna’s manga section in one shelf, but he didn’t mind sharing. Arjuna was more an e-book person anyway and mostly read his stuff on his tablet. He only purchase paper-books if it was limited print or encyclopedias. Thanks to that he had to wear glasses when reading because he couldn’t see small words now or when he was driving. And he didn’t like putting on his glasses that much because damn he looked so much like Indra.

Arjuna unwarped Indra’s gift as at his table. He had expected it was a fake roach toy or some traumatizing things again since it was a gift from his father. He always expect the worst from Indra, even if he only gift him weird things ocassionally. Well, this one was still pretty weird, but nothing harmful. Indra bought him the DIY paternal test kit. Probably for a joke. It was one sale anyway. _What a bad hobby..._ Arjuna thought and sighed. Indra must have bought this on whim or just to play with him.

He examined the instructions and the test kit. He only had to do the simple cheek swabs on him and Nitya’s and send those to the labs to get the results. Easy and quick. The results will arrive in one to three weeks or a month if it was holiday. _Hah! What a joke._ Arjuna was about to throw the thing away when he felt a bit of curiosity.

Of course, he was damn sure Nitya was his son. Karna was his mated omega after all. He couldn’t even cheat on Arjuna. Who the hell would cheat if it was painful to have sex with other people? Unlike beta couples, omegas was impossible to cheat. Though there were some rare cases where they did. But it would be a waste if he just throw it away. So Arjuna also did the test on whim. Just for fun. Plus Indra had already spent money on this.

He went to Nitya’s room, tip-toeing, making as little noise as he could as he entered his son’s room. And he did the inner cheek swab on the boy. Just one quick swab. The boy’s mouth was open and he was drooling too so it was awfully easy for Arjuna to do it. He even watched Nitya’s sleeping funny face for a moment. There was no way this boy was not his son.

He sent that thing to the lab the a few days later. He also make the receiving address his company address so it would be sent to him at work. He didn’t want Karna to see this anyway. It might come out as offensive. He doubt that Karna would be angry over this since he was saintly patient, but Arjuna just felt awkward showing Karna this. 

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

The results was sent to Arjuna at the early of first January. It was delivered to him by his secretary, Medb. She was sexy and had always tried to seduce him indirectly, but Arjuna never cared and he didn’t find her interesting. Arjuna didn’t want to change secretary as it was a pain in ass plus Medb did a good job on sorting his things. Plus she never directly touched him so he just ignored it mostly as it was nothing serious. Though, sometimes annoying. But so far, Arjuna was one heart and loyal to Karna and had never looked at anyone else. All he wanted was in his hands. He was already archiving everything he could have wished. 

“Thank you.” Arjuna thanked as she handed him the envelope. He opened it after she left his room.

What did Arjuna expect when he open it. Nothing. He expected nothing. He was just checking it for literally nothing but for fun. But it threw his world 180 degrees when he slowly read the results. His playful smirk when he opened the envelope slowly dropped into a face of horror as he looked at the results. Over and over. Trying to re-register if he was seeing it wrong. 

Results: Negative. Not blood related. Not parent and child.

Arjuna couldn’t take that. He put down the papers and he sat on his chair, looking to the ceiling with black face. Trying to put the pieces in his head. He was about to cry. He was already crying internally. The faces of his dear son flashes into his mind. Starting from when he was just born, Arjuna hold him and had treasured him since then. Karna was his beloved and they had been together for years.

_But it’s impossible for Karna to cheat. I bit him and he can only have sex with me... but what if he cheat before that? Before his heat, before we bonded. What if he cheat with someone else? Nitya was born three weeks earlier too._

He couldn’t process it. The more the thought about it, the more it seemed like Karna had cheated on him. He couldn’t do any work for that day and he was thinking about the results the whole day. That Nitya was not his son and Karna was cheating with him. 

When he went home, Karna greeted him at the doors and Arjuna faked a smile. Which Karna see trough it instantly. “Did something bad happened at work?” Karna asked.

“No. It’s nothing serious.” Arjuna replied after he took off his shoes. 

When Arjuna saw Nitya, he felt so hurt. But he masked it anyway. They boy’s smile made him felt so weak and meaningless, thinking that he might had raised other man’s son the whole time. 

At their room, Karna tried to lighten Arjuna’s mood. “Do you want to take a bath together?” 

Usually, Arjuna would like to be invited and they did like to play in the tub. Arjuna was quite a playful man so he tried to do it outside of their bed. But not tonight. He coldly brushed Karna’s offer. “You can do that by yourself.” He said coldly as he changed into his sleeping t-shirt and sweatpants.

At the bed, Karna tried to comfort him. He tried to hug Arjuna from behind, but he was pushed away. Much to Karna’s confusion, but he left it be, thinking that Arjuna needed some space alone. 

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

After days of thinking and assesing and avoiding Karna and Nitya, Arjuna was stressed out. He felt truly betrayed. He checked the results once again, and the words didn’t change. He had given it a final look before he closed it back to the envelope. He would use this to file a divorce. He kept it safe in his office’s drawer.

Medb entered with some more documents about the sellings and stuff. She had sorted them in numbers and were very neat. Arjuna was spced out even when she was in front of him. She waved at his face but he didn’t respond or even react. She leaned on the table, revealing her cleavage to him. She always keep her cleavage a bit low just to seduce men. She smirked sly and called Arjuna with sweet seductive voice. “Boss, hello~? Are you okay?” 

Arjuna blinked as he was awoken from his own mind. He looked right to her boobs, and her bra was frilly white one. Their face was so close, and since Arjuna didn’t push her away, Medb touched her boss’s cheek. “Hehe, finally interested in me?”

Arjuna smirked back to her. Fuck everything. If Karna could cheat on him, he could do that too. And Arjuna could easily do that with anyone he wanted. He did still love Karna and it hurt him when he got the results hat Nitya was not his son. It was like the ads. People cheat. And Arjuna didn’t want to be a dumbass who would raise a boy from some other dude that Karna cheated with. So, he didn’t refused it when Medb give him a peck. “Are you free tonight?” Arjuna asked.

—————

Karna was worried. Because it was two at the morning and Arjuna wasn’t back home yet. He called Arjuna’s phone but he had turned it off. Arjuna had been weird for days and he refused to speak to Karna no matter what he had tried to do. Waking up early to and make him coffee so they could speak, didn’t work. Bed time intimacy, didn’t work too. Arjuna straightly pushed him away. Karna had made all the food Arjuna liked and he wasn’t getting better. Karna realized that he had made Arjuna upset but he didn’t know what he did wrong. And Arjuna wasn’t saying anything too.

He waited outside the door, waiting for Arjuna to come back. It was cold outside as it was still snowing and he had been standing there for an hour. His hair was tied into a quick messy bun. He wore his coat and he kept his hands inside the pockets to keep them warm. He looked around but Arjuna still didn’t return. 

He stood there for another half of hours until Arjuna came back. He parked the car on the spot outside their home and he turned off the engine and came out from the car. Arjuna was unhappy to see Karna. His face was showing how he was pissed and hurt at the same time. Karna was waiting for him outside with worried face and it made him felt so conflicted. “What are you doing outside?” 

Karna frowned. Saddened with Arjuna’s very cold tone of speaking. But soon, he noticed a different smell coming from Arjuna as the finally man stood right at his front. Karna was going to touch Arjuna when he smelled it and his face swicthed into a disbelief. This was a woman’s scent. A heavy one too with perfume and the smell of alcohol was there too. He couldn’t believe Arjuna just went touching someone else, most possible having physical relationship with him as the smell of her was everywhere and Arjuna came back very late at 2:30 was implying they went to a hotel... or a bar... or something. 

Karna was speechless. He dropped his hand as he tried register the scent of another woman on Arjuna into his head. Arjuna had cheated on him and slept with someone else. The man who was supposed to love him and vowed to do so. “Why?” Karna asked, face blank from the shock. 

“Why?” Arjuna scoffed and smirked arrogantly at Karna. “Ask yourself and take off that thing off your finger.”

“What did I do wrong?” Karna responded. He was about to cry. Not only that Arjuna came back with this scent of cheating, he straight told Karna to take off his ring. That could only mean one thing. Arjuna wanted to end their bond. 

Arjuna was getting angrier, glaring at Karna he yelled. “Why do you have to act like you know nothing?!” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really?” Arjuna laughed in irony. “I know it. You cheated on me.”

“Eh?”

“If it’s only that, I could have forgiven you. But I can’t believe you make me raise your son from your indecency!”

“What do you mean, Arjuna? Nitya is our—“

“Stop,” Arjuna cut him off right there. He didn’t want to hear that that thing was their son. It wasn’t. And he hated being used. “Don’t lie. Are you doing this for the money? Haha. Let me tell you. I won’t let you get any. Must’ve been easy for you to trick me.”

Karna couldn’t say anything. Not because what Arjuna said was right. But his head hurts and he couldn’t think of the right word. He was too shocked. He could only stare blankly at his spouse. Arjuna waited for Karna to say anything, and he took Karna’s silence as yes. That he cheated first. Why would he be silent if it was not true? Even if he tried to deny, the papers, the prove were already there. There was nothing to deny.

“I’ll file the divorce tomorrow. Get your things and your child out of my house.” Arjuna told him and he went to the door. When he push opened it, he found Nitya was peeking on them there. He was awoken by the car’s noises. Arjuna said nothing and walked pass him. He only gave him one distasteful look. As if he was looking at a disgusting something.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

 _Twenty percent of men will learn they are not the father of the child they are testing. I am one of those. Hah! If not for that test kit, I will never know._ Arjuna meant his words. The next day, he went to process their divorce. It was quick and easy with the money he had and with the prove of DNA test saying that Nitya wasn’t his son. 

Arjuna kicked Karna out from his house alongside with Nitya just two days after that. Having no job and housing, and was still confused with everything, Karna went to Surya’s cafe with his stuff on bag, mostly was his son’s things. Surya surprised to see Karna coming to his cafe with that sad miserable, defeated looks and bags. Nitya was visibly broken too. He was silent and unable to make any noise.

“What’s wrong?!” Surya went to his son as fast as he could. He was scared. There weren’t any customers at eight in the morning too and his part-time worker, Cu, wasn’t in yet.

“Papa-ue, can I stay here for some time? I will find a place a soon as I can.” Karna was asking for the flat at the second story of this cafe. One he spend his childhood here as his house. Nobody lived here anymore since Surya and Indra got together. It had been empty since then. Surya only operate the first story as his cafe. But the only good place Karna could think of. Plus he couldn’t really afford any place right now. He had been dependent on Arjuna the whole time. That man was just too reliable and smart. 

“Sit down.” Surya ordered him. Karna nodded and took a seat at the bar after he put down his two backpacks. The one he always seat as a kid. It was his favorite place and the one he always sat at when he needed to consult things with Surya. He helped Nitya up the stool chair because it was a big high for a kid. Surya served them both hot cocoa. Because sweet things always help.

“What happened?” Surya asked but Karna wasn’t saying anything. He figured that he might not want to speak with Nitya next to him. So Surya told Nitya to go check the upstairs. “Go clean the places you can. Okay?” Nitya nodded as he get down, totally understanding that the adults need some space to talk about their adult stuff.

After Nitya left, Karna slowly told him everything. About Arjuna doing the DNA test without him knowing and the results come back telling him that Nitya was not his son. And because of that Arjuna decided to ditch him and go for another woman and he kicked both Karna and Nitya out into the middle of snow. Surya couldn’t believe his ears at first. For what he know, Arjuna had been pretty obsessive with Karna for years and they were very in love. 

“Is it true? Did you cheat?” Surya asked. He needed to know about that first. If this was really the truth, then he couldn’t blame Arjuna. Anyone would be upset if this happened to them. And Surya would be very disappointed, if this was true, he must had been wrong somewhere in his parenting.

Karna shook his head. “I did not.” He denied.

Surya didn’t know which one to believe. If there was a DNA test and the result was negative. It would be hard to deny. Surya may not be a doctor, but he knew these tests were usually pretty accurate. As much as he wanted to trust his son, but if Karna did lied and he was the wrong one, Surya couldn’t help him. “Do you mean that?”

Karna looked up from his cup of cocoa that he hadn’t drank since earlier. It was no longer hot anymore. Karna looked at Surya, really disappointed that even Surya refused to trust him. But it was logical, if the results came like that. It was even harder to convince anyone. Karna had asked and begged Arjuna to take another test, but the man refused. “I didn’t cheat.” Karna answered, not with much hope.

“I believe you. It’s a parent’s job to trust their kids,” Surya said as he gave Karna a pat on his shoulder and a sad smile, trying to understand Karna’s pain. “You can just stay here. It’s okay. You can help me with the shop. You don’t have to find another place.”

And it begins again, Karna’s life as a cafe waiter. It reminded him of his younger days before he had Nitya. He worked here to help Surya most of the time.

His old bed was hard and small, getting used to living good was not helpful at all. Nitya had problems falling asleep because he couldn’t get used to the bed. And the rooms were too small too. It just felt bad and scary. But he needed to get used to it. He didn’t want to be a bother to Karna. Plus, he had already grown to hate Arjuna these few days. Arjuna treated him like nothing. At first, he was scared and tried to make things more understandable. But Arjuna only grew colder to him at the end and didn’t respond anymore when Nitya calls him father. The loving figure suddenly shifted into a cold and condescending eyes. The boy was serverely traumatized. What happened had destroyed half of his self worth. 

—————

Indra was pretty shocked as well with the news of their sons’ divorce. Surya told Indra about the DNA test result and told him about Karna staying at his cafe. Indra felt conflicted as well. He did gave the test pack out of whim and joke and he certainly didn’t expect this outcome at all. He was also damn sure that Nitya was his grandson. Man, he felt so bad now for destroying Karna’s life but he also felt that if Nitya wasn’t his grandson, then it was a good thing? He was confused. Very. Indra hadn’t heard of this. Because his law firm was dealing mostly with crimes and lands and, well, shady things. He never ever dealt with domestic stuffs so these things just didn’t get into his place.

“But if the results stated that, it could only mean Karna cheated.” Indra tried to reason, but that sent Surya to a rage. 

But Surya managed to calm down. He was not a teen anymore and he knew how to control himself well now. “If you don’t believe, then it’s fine. You don’t have to say anything.”

“That test is 99.9% accurate. I can’t force Arjuna to keep their marriage if that was true.” 

“I’m not asking you to persuade Arjuna to accept Karna again. I’m asking you to talk to him, so he will do a re-test. If it’s really Karna’s fault, then I will accept that.” 

_What was the point?_ was Indra wanted to say. But he knew if he say that, Surya would be very angry. Indra certainly trusted that results more than Karna’s claim. It wasn’t that Indra disliked Karna. He already liked him as his own son, but Indra was just systematic and trusted proves more than papers. He sighed and took off his glasses, hanging it on his shirt. “I understand. I will try to talk to him.”

Surya seemed to be satisfied with that.

—————

But it didn’t work anyway as Arjuna’s mind was already set with the fact that Nitya was not his son and he was cheated on. “What can another test do? Change the result? Why are you siding with Karna anyway?”

“I am not siding with anyone. You didn’t tell us anything and Surya demand another test taken. That’s all. It will be quick. Just another swab, what’s so hard with it?” Indra asked from the phone.

“No. It’s finished. I’m not going to forgive Karna.” Arjuna hung up the call after he said it with angry voice.

This wasn’t going to satisfy Surya. He wanted another test for determine the truth. Indra really prefer not to do another test as he was sure the result would come back the same. But he did went to the hospital for another check. And both with him and Surya both present and they did the test at the hospital, with the professionals, they could still get a pretty clear results. Arjuna was Indra’s son after all. Unless Nitya was really not his grandson or Arjuna was not his real son, the results should come out with something.

And when Indra saw the results with Surya and their grandson, Indra knew he had to sue someone. He would destroy a whole company for this.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Arjuna was getting on steady relationship with his secretary. It was like telenovela, the secretary romance. They even had sex at the office because Medb was a kinky one and Arjuna was so too. Though, this relationship was not based on love. Medb just wanted to fuck around and Arjuna was just broken heart and wanted to forget Karna as quick as possible. They kept it safe with condoms every time because Arjuna wouldn’t want to have a kid out of wedlock, especially not with Medb, knowing she had many partners. Arjuna had enough of being the ‘financial’ father. A lot of the employees were jealous of Medb because she managed to get a big fish.

Medb knocked the door of her boss with another envelope. She put it on Arjuna’s table while he was busy typing on his computer. “You father’s law firm sent you something, Boss.”

“Thank you,” Arjuna faked a smile. Medb leaned and gave him a peck on cheek as she sat on his lap, initiating her moves. She touched Arjuna’s hand, and she looked on it, pleasantly as her boss had removed his marriage ring. “Hey, you can’t keep on doing this. We need to get some work done.”

Medb pouted as she pushed her boobs on the man’s chest. “Hmm. But, I want you~”

“I understand,” the boss chuckled. “I’ll go to your place tonight.” 

“Really?”

“I promise.” Arjuna replied. 

“Okay then. I’ll get back to work. Hehe.” She said as she get up from the lap and skipped out from the room. Not forgetting to twerk her ass a bit to add more charm.

After she was gone, Arjuna sighed as he opened his mail. He was quite tired with Medb’s demeanor every time. But better than nothing. He didn’t want to open his stuffs when Medb is around, especially when it was from Indra’s workplace. His father might be mischievous, but he never sent him things from his work except for serious things. 

Oh, it was another shocked face when he read the paper results of the grandparent paternal test. Arjuna’s whole body was cold and his hands were trembling. It proved that Nitya was indeed Indra’s grandson. Which could only meant one thing. Nitya really was his son. 

At that moment, he knew, he fucked up. And all of this was originally Indra’s fault.

He was making thousands of scenario on how to apologize, hopefully, Karna would forgive him after all the things he did.

.  
.  
.


	2. Chapter 2

Surya was cleaning the counter bar that evening. The shop closed at five everyday and he was cleaning things for tomorrow. Karna and Nitya was out with Raikou for relaxing. She wanted to help Karna and her nephew to get better soon. So they were out to some resort spa and pool since the noon. She was raised with Karna and they were like siblings themselves. She and Karna used to watch shojo anime together when they were children. Because Raikou pulled pulled him to watch with her. Surya still remembered how cute mini Raikou and mini Karna’s back when they sit in front of the TV.

Karna didn’t want to go at first. He wanted to help with the shop and make himself useful. Karna even decided to work at midnight for some 24/7 convienience store even though Surya had told him not to do it. But Karna didn’t want to be a burden to Surya. He already provided them with a living space and most of their necessities and even gave them money. Karna didn't even have to pay bills because it was in store. He was really a freeloader. And that made Karna felt more worthless and useless. Surya couldn’t bear seeing Karna was just trying so hard that he couldn’t calm down at all. Karna was anxious and afraid after the divorce and feared he might not be a good single parent. And he didn't want to cause anymore further problems for people. So Surya halfly-forced his son and his grandson to go with aunty Raikou.

Cu walked out from the backroom, already changed back into his casual shirt after work, and ready to leave. He grabbed his bag, hung them on his back and waved to the owner at the door. “I’m going home now, uncle chef.” He said with a grin. 

“Ah. Be careful not to slide on the snow.” Surya told him before he left with a laughter after saying he won’t. Which he fell right outside the shop comically. He got up and rubbed his ass before he walked away. Cu was Karna’s friend since childhood. He was his friend since elementary school. Surya used to make an extra lunch box for Cu so he was close with him. Now the kids were all grown up and he had a grandson too. His cute grandson that looked like he was permanently sad and angry.

Surya was alone behind the counter, just sorting some glass because he had mild OCD when somebody entered his cafe. “Sorry, we’re closing—“ Surya was stopped when he saw the person who came was Arjuna. “Why are you here?” 

“Surya. Where’s Karna?” Arjuna asked. He needed to talk now and clear up the misunderstanding and promptly apologize. Yes. That he need to do. And he need to get his family back.

“Go home. I don’t want to see you here.” Surya was angry and he was glaring too. His eyes were more scarier than Karna’s plus Surya could really resort to violence if needed. Arjuna had witnessed a few times of Surya punching people. Twice being Fergus. So, Surya was dangerous. Arjuna was even lucky that he was able to marry Karna at the first place without being killed. 

“I need to speak to Karna. It’s my mistake. I need to apologize to him and fix this. I’m sorry.” Arjuna apologized, lowering his head to Surya. 

“How bold of you to say that after you cheated with your secretary and throw my son and my son’s son out to the snow six at the morning?” Surya crossed his arms as he glared more to that demon spawn of Indra. At least Indra never cheated on him. “Go back and eat your piece of paper. Don’t talk to me or my son or my son’s son anymore. They are doing fine without you.”

“Surya, please, let me—“

“Get out!” Surya roared like a lion king. And Arjuna was pretty scared now. Because unlike Karna, Surya had bad temper. He was the worst when he was angered. Not even Indra dare to anger him. 

Arjuna braven himself. He was ready for a few punch if Surya really want to do it. He deserved it anyway. He still need to see Karna. “I beg you, Surya. I need to speak to Karna. I want to fix my mistake.”

Surya was getting more pissed now. He walked out of the counter and went to Arjuna. He pulled the man’s collar and deadly glared to him right on his eyes. “And what? So you can kick them out again?!”

“No! I promise I won’t doubt Karna anymore.” 

“You said you will never forgive my son. Why should he ever forgive you?” Surya pushed Arjuna way by the collar.

Curse that! Arjuna didn’t know Surya was there. He thought it was just a conversation between him and Indra. Fuck. Now it bit back to him. He was very mad and emotionally unstable back then, and he said it. But it was true he meant it when he said he would never forgive Karna for cheating. But now, it was the opposite. It was Arjuna who was cheating over a piece of wrong test results and he was stepping on Karna’s face over and over until he kicked them out without a care. Arjuna internally screamed, wanting to turn back the time. He couldn’t answer that question. He knew it damn well that Karna had no reason to forgive him. He trusted a piece of paper more than his own family. He understood that but he wanted his family back. He wanted Karna back to him again. He loved Karna. He just realized it now. 

The trio were back and Karna drover Raikou’s car back. Raikou opened the door, finding her brother in there. And her expression changed instantly. From a smile to a sinister look as she looked at Arjuna with disgust. Arjuna knew this face. It was when she looked at some insects or some people she dislike or anyone who dared to touch her dear Kintoki. Aka. Shuten Douji. Arjuna was a mere insect to her now. She hated cheaters and would never forgive cheaters. Even if it was her brother. Her opinion towards Arjuna was in rumbles now. Since he believed a paper more than Karna, his love was questionable. Raikou was sure that was not love as love was pure. 

“Insect,” She whispered to herself, looking at Arjuna with dark eyes. Karna behind her, stared at Arjuna in silence, looking visibly bothered and uncomfortable with Arjuna being here. And Nitya was glaring at him too, 1000% with hostility. However, her digust was quickly masked with the most friendliest smile, the fake smile that runs in Indra’s family. The fake smile of a yandere. “Ara ara, what a mood killer. We already had so much fun and Juna have to destroy it.”

Karna gently pushed his son inside. It was cold outside. They need to get inside. But Karna said nothing. He wasn’t ready to talk to Arjuna yet. It pained him every time he remembered what Arjuna had said and done. Plus, he had a woman now. Karna examined Arjuna from his head to his toe, he was not wearing his ring anymore. And fuck he still smelled like Medb’s perfume, even if it was just slightly. It gave Karna so much frustration and he regret for not yet taking off his own ring. It felt dumb now he was the only one wearing it. But now, he had given up.

So, he took it off in front of his ex-husband. Which Arjuna watched in total horror. The sight of Karna frowning down while taking off his ring was the worst the he witnessed for his whole life. Not even the ghost prank Indra did could be this scary. And Karna’s sad face was just unbearable, especially with that slight miserable smile on his lips. “Karna—“ He couldn’t say much with Surya and Raikou and Nitya all intensely glaring at him. “I’m sorry—“

“No. I understand. This is expensive, so you might want it back,” Karna said as he went to the man and picked up his hand, placing his ring there. This could still be some money if sold. It was gold. “It’s fine. Thank you for the good time. I was not a good partner. I hope you’re happy with her.” He said and walked passed him, straight to upstairs, escaping Arjuna. 

“Wait— Karna— I am—“ _No! No! No! That’s not it. Karna, you’re missing the point! I’m here to say sorry. I want to be with you again. Not the opposite! I’m not here to take that ring! Don’t take it off!_ Arjuna tried to stop Karna. He wanted to pull Karna’s shoulder but Surya gripped on his arm. Stopping him from chasing Karna.

“You’ve heard him,” Surya eyed him coldly. “Now leave.”

 _Fucking Surya! Let me finish first!_ Arjuna was pulled to the door and was kicked out to the snow. Just like how Arjuna pushed Karna and their son to the snow out from their house, devastated. It was karma speaking. Arjuna watched as the door closed and he saw Nitya’s cold eyes looking at him right before he was thrown out. And thus, it started, Arjuna’s attempt on making up for his mistakes and trying to woo Karna again with the biggest challenges ever. 

Arjuna wasn't allowed to go inside even after he stood there for two hours. Now, he remembered when Karna stood outside, waiting for him to come how at midnight right in the cold snow. It made him felt so guilty. Karna must had been so worried that he went out just to wait for him. And yet, when he came home, he accused Karna for cheating and saying that Nitya was not their son. He was loud that the boy listened to his words. He was just standing there, hoping Karna would open the door for him. He wanted to see Karna. He wanted to see their son. He wanted to embrace Karna. The cold made Arjuna miss Karna's warmth.

Arjuna saw Raikou coming out from the alley from the back door. And that was it. She didn't try to talk to him, only eyeing him in disgust just like what he did to his son and just went home on her own. But Surya was still inside. He was totally not leaving until Arjuna leave first. Arjuna gave up. He knew this was not the end. He could always come back again tomorrow.

On his way home, he was called by Medb for a few times. He pressed the red button every time. Time to think for a replacement of a secretary.

—————

The home felt so empty without his mate and son. It was dark and Arjuna was alone. Alone. He looked into his mini office room and seeing Karna's mangas that he didn't take with him when leaving, made Arjuna very lonely. He didn't give Karna enough time to pack and kicked him out as soon as he could. Most of Karna's stuffs were still in the house. His shoes were still on the rack. Nitya's were there too. 

The sink in the kitchen was dry because nobody was using it. Nobody cooked and Arjuna certainly didn't feel like cooking just for himself. It was a pain in ass. It was way easier to just eat out. He went to his room, walking pass his son's room. He opened the door and looked inside. If only his son was still in here. He sighed and went to his own room. He took off his shirt and opened his wardrobe, but seeing Karna's shirt on his side of the wardrobe. Karna didn't took most of his outfits. He only took a few of his usual shirts and left. 

Arjuna sat on the bed and he pulled out the ring Karna gave him back earlier. He looked at it and cried a bit. He swore he would be loyal to Karna now. Even if it took forever or never at all.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Karna was serving in the cafe. Having an extra hands were good because Cu was not a daily worker. He was only there a few times a week as he had other shift for his other jobs. Surya’s cafe wasn’t a big one and normally it wasn’t crowded. He actually had another part timer that just quitted a week ago, so Karna’s timing was the best. He was a big help for Surya. 

Karna was serving the lunch menu to a couple guests when the bell on top the door rang.  
“Welcome...” his voice gradually go down.

Arjuna was there, standing at the door, looking at Karna as if he was a lost puppy asking to be picked. Arjuna’s smile was filled with regret and he looked at Karna with longing eyes. Surya wanted to kick that person out as soon as now. But it would cause a ruckuss towards the other guests and he wouldn’t want it. He ran a coffee shop and lunch time was supposed to be a good time. 

“Welcome. Please sit down,” Karna said with the customer service voice, leading Arjuna to his table. Treating Arjuna like any other customers and handed him the menu book. “What can I get for you?” Karna asked as he pulled out the note to write down the orders.

“Tuna sandwich and coffee.” Arjuna said without flipping open the menu book. He memorized the menu here anyway since Karna often make it at home. Karna wasn’t a natural cook, so his skills were limited and mostly taught by Surya. And he could only do simple menus. But Arjuna liked those.

Karna left after he took the orders, went to the kitchen to prepare it. And came out with the food. Arjuna didn’t state his coffee but Karna knew he liked his coffee with little cream and sugar and Karna had mixed them just like how Arjuna like it. “Karna,” Arjuna called his ex as he put down the cup in front of him. “Can I speak to you?”

“Please enjoy.” Karna said politely in his customer service tone before he excused himself and went to stand by on the counter bar. He didn’t want to talk to Arjuna at the work hours. It might be overwhelming.

Arjuna wasn’t giving up either. At least, he didn’t have to wait outside like last night. He sat there for the next two hours. He pulled out his surface pro and went on doing his stuff while waiting. Why waste time on just waiting and accomplish nothing? He could do some work here. It was just some coding. Arjuna understood that making Karna to forgive him needs a lot of time. For now, his plan was just sticking around until Karna would speak to him... or until Surya kicked him out. 

He had been sitting there for an hour and the guests from lunch time had left and new customers had come in. Nitya came down from the second story with a book in his hand. But as soon as he saw Arjuna, which Arjuna looked at him with the kindest, begging smile, Nitya turned back his back and head upstairs again. Karna was upset with Arjuna’s accusation and his cheating, but the one who was most upset was their son. Nitya totally hated him now. Just like how Galahad hated his father when they were kids. Exactly the same. 

“Nitya seemed like he needed something. I’ll go check on him.” Surya said as he wiped his hands on the towel and then he went upstrairs.

Arjuna checked on Karna again, he was behind the counter now, brewing some flower tea, ordered by a couple just had entered earlier. A couple were just enjoying a day together and how much jealousy brewing inside Arjuna as he watched. And while Arjuna was eyeing them with much envy, another person entered the shop. The employee of the month for years, Cu Chulainn had entered. But no, he wasn’t here for work. He came because he forgot something on his locker yesterday. 

Cu looked at Arjuna who was looking back at thim. The blue haired man raised his brows as he walked to Karna. He put his arms over Karna’s shoulder and whispered to him. “What’s your ex doing here?”

Karna shook his head. “It’s not your shift today. Why do you come?”

“I can’t find my socks. I think I left them at the locker... or somewhere around there. Came to check on it. I’ve searched my room. Totally not there.”

“Ah. I see. I hope you find it soon.” Karna said and Cu finally pull his hands off. The second he looked back to Arjuna, he could see the dark eyes staring at him, capable of murder. Arjuna’s expression were grim and Cu was a bit grossed with it. He was never close to Arjuna anyway. He went to the backroom to check on his locker and Karna served the tea pot with petals in them and two empty cup for each of them.

Now, without Surya, Arjuna decided it was the right time to talk to Karna. Arjuna waited until Karna was in stand by mode again and he walked to him. “Karna, I want to speak to you.” He said, not loudly so he was sure none of the customers could hear them.

“What is it?” 

“That... I’m sorry. For accusing you and I hurt you. Sorry,” He lowered his head a bit. “I want to make it up. To you and Nitya...” Karna was silent. He didn’t say anything. He looked at Arjuna glanced a few times to Arjuna, clearly avoiding to look at him directly. Arjuna was awkwardly trying to continue the conversation. “Are you free tonight? Can we go out somewhere?”

“Sorry. I have work tonight.” 

Arjuna was bothered with the fact Karna had another work after this. What kind of work? Karna wasn’t struggling financially. He had a home and place to stay, and the basic needs fulfilled. Why would he be working? “How about Nitya? Is he alone at night?”

“He’s staying with Papa-ue and Indra at night so it’s fine.” Karna replied.

“I see,” Arjuna smiled slightly. He and Karna was talking normally. Yes. They were speaking without a problem and Arjuna was relieved that Karna would still talk to him. “That’s great. Do you and Nitya need anything? Please tell me if there’s something I can help with.”

“Arjuna, you have renounced your paternal rights,”

That hurts. Really. Arjuna’s chest felt like it was pressed so hard. Yes, he did that. Arjuna did it so that he didn’t have to pay child support. Because he thought he was just being used. And he also filed Karna so that he had no rights over the his house or his money. He was basically a single man on top of a paper with no children. When they were processing their divorce, Karna had told Arjuna so many times that Nitya was his son. Arjuna just didn’t buy it. He was too blinded with his rage. He even asked his lawyer to prevent Karna and Nitya to claim anything of his. He spent money on that.

On the other side, that meant Arjuna had no rights over their son. He was not his son anymore. Of course, Arjuna could put this to court once again, but that would totally be an ass move and an outright custody battle... over the child he had once abandoned. His only hope was to marry Karna once again. That was the only to fix this. 

Karna added more. “You’re not supposed to bother with us anymore.”

Arjuna wanted to touch Karna. To hold his hands. But he stopped himself from doing that. He wasn’t allowed to do that anymore. “I’m sorry, Karna. Can you please give me another chance? I want to be a family again.” 

“Sorry,” Karna shook his head lightly. “I don’t think that’s the best for us,” he said, rejecting Arjuna’s offer. “But I’m glad that the misunderstanding is cleared. You can come and see Nitya anytime you want.” Karna said and then he walked away as a customer waved his hand, asking for the bill.

After that, Arjuna went home heartbroken. 

—————

That night, Arjuna was worried when he checked the calender next to the bed that used to be Karna’s spot. It had a date marked with red marked saying ‘heat day’. The one they had planned to try for a baby. Arjuna had never missed Karna’s needy day. He was always thoughtful of Karna’s body, prefering him not to take any of those hormone pills. Until now it was.

Karna was no longer Arjuna’s partner even if he was still his mate. The thought of not able to touch Karna on his heat was frustating to some point. It was upsetting. And Arjuna was upset of himself.

Arjuna remembered how he was looking forward this day back then at christmas. But it was just Arjuna’s dreams inside dreams now. Having a wide bed all for himself was a sad thing. His bed no longer had Karna’s smell. And his home was cold. There was no one except for him now in this two story family house.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Arjuna still return to the shop frequently. Once or twice in a week. As a customer. He was just missing Karna so badly that sitting there, just looking at Karna’s working figure was actually giving him some comfort. And the whole time he sat there, he looked like he was going to cry. They said your ex would look prettier once you break up. That was true. Because Karna was the most beautiful being Arjuna ever seen. That shoulder length snow white hair tied into a ponytail, his long bangs, those red lines under his eyes. Karna was very charming. He was so beautiful.

Surya didn’t like him there, but Karna asked him not to kick him out, because Arjuna wasn’t causing any problems. He was just there like a usual customer. Plus, sometimes he got to see Nitya. Though rarely. Since the boy had totally excommunicated Arjuna. 

“Let’s go to the Game Park this weekend. There’s a meet up with the author Nitya like,” Arjuna said as Karna served him the breakfast bagel and his coffee. Arjuna was the first customer because he just came here straight from his home. “And we can go play some rides after that.” 

It brought back memories. When they were children themselves, Karna liked to ride the roller coasters. Even as a teen, they would sometimes go there and Arjuna would get sick most of the time because Karna was an extreme rider. It was fun days. There was once Karna had too carry Arjuna all way home because he was super sick and fainted after riding seven rides.

“Sorry. I have shifts.” Because Karna had work to do. 

“You shouldn’t be working all the time. It’s not good,” Arjuna said, genuinely concerned. Because all Karna did was getting job there and here. And Nitya was permanently living with his grandparents now. But worst of it, Karna was getting super close with Cu because now, they were part-time pals. And Arjuna was jealous. Though he didn’t say it. Who was he to tell things? Karna was single now. He was free to be with anyone, doing what he wanted. “If you need help, I’m always here.”

“Thank you. I’m fine. But if you want, you can ask Nitya if he wanted to go with you or not.” Karna offered instead.

 _How am I supposed to do that? I haven’t speak to him in like three months. He won’t even respond when I call him. He hates me now._ “No. I don’t think he will want to go just with me... But I can give the tickets to Surya and ask him to go with father and Nitya... yes, that sounds more realistic.” Because Arjuna really couldn’t see himself going out together with his son one. It looked much like an illusion.

Karna gave him a small smile and hummed, finding Arjuna’s troubled half-smile-half-desperate face funny, before he went on serving other guests that had just arrived. An elderly woman with her daughter. Arjuna went to the counter where Surya was. “What do you want?” The sun dad asked with unpleasant tone. Surya was not yet forgiven Arjuna. He was just tolerating his existence here.

“Surya. I have three premium pass tickets for the game park. Can you take Nitya there? Karna was busy so he can’t do it,” Arjuna asked with the most friendly smile and the nicest tone he could make. “There’s a meet up event with children’s book author Andersen. Nitya liked him so much. He’d been saying he wanted a sign.”

Surya looked at him with bored expression while he was stirring the syrup he made by himself. “Okay. Put it there.” He said. 

“Thank you,” Arjuna thanked him as he out the tickets on the counter and went back to his seat. Surya started to feel sympathy for this man now. Arjuna seemed like he regretted everything and had been very polite and respectful to Karna. Since the day Karna rejected him, Arjuna never brought up his intent on getting back again. All he did was come to see Karna, had his food, sitting there for an hour or less, looking at his ex, and left very heartbroken. Every single time.

Best employee, Cu Chulainn had arrived for the morning till noon shift. “Good morning,” Cu greeted and the owner and Karna greeted back. The blue haired man totally thought Arjuna as a stalker now. Well. Not a surprise. He used to stalk Karna at the high school anyway. He just went back to that level. “Did you read the latest chapter?” Cu asked Karna as with a big grin. “Told you he gonna make it.”

Karna smiled back. “Ah. The author trolled us by making him looked like dead,” He had been reading the mangas for free at the store he worked at midnight, when no customers were around. “I didn’t expect him to be really sleeping. Thought he was dead.”

And Arjuna was burning in jealously. The jealousy was like hell. He watched as Karna and Cu kept talking about the manga. Karna’s smile was so painful to watch. He was really having fun talking to Cu. _Wait. Why does it feels like they are getting way too friendly?!_ Arjuna witnessed Cu standing next to Karna as he showed him something on his phone, and their arms touched. And Karna didn’t move away. _Is that asshole trying to take Karna!? No...Not that... please...Karna..._

Karna was single now. So he was free to be with anyone to do anything he wanted. Arjuna painfully accepted that. He frowned as he watched Karna and Cu busy with their own world. And Surya watched Arjuna’s sad face. He smiled, accepting that Karna was really single now. Arjuna was no one to tell him not to be touchy with other alphas. Especially not when he was the wrong one and the cheater and the asshole that trusted a paper from a DIY test on sale more than his own family.

Arjuna left some money on the table and left without touching his bagel. 

—Karna noticed.

—————

Around two pm, Arjuna’s phone rang and Arjuna knew who the caller was just by the ringtone. He had set a special one for Karna. And this was the first time actually rings since they divorced. Arjuna was overjoyed, but also pretty scared. Why would Karna call him? “Hello?”

“Arjuna. It’s me,” Karna said, assuming that Arjuna might had deleted his number. Well. He did deleted it. But he had it memorized in his brain as well. So after the misunderstandings were cleared, he saved Karna’s number once again and assigned a special ringtone just for him. “I noticed you didn’t eat anything this morning. Are you feeling sick?” 

Warmth sprouted inside Arjuna’s chest. He couldn’t express how happy he was that Karna was concerned over him. “I’m fine. I’m sorry for worrying you,” He said politely. “I just remembered something urgent so I left.”

It was a big improvement. Arjuna felt that his goal was a little bit less than impossible now. _Karna still does care about me. There might be still a chance for me!_

“I see. It’s fine if so. Sorry for taking your time.”

“Karna, wait a minute.”

“What is it?”

“Can you help me picking out present for Nitya? His birthday is close, right? I... really don’t know what he want now.” It was not a lie. Arjuna had been thinking about Nitya’s soon 9’th years old birthday next month. He wanted to ask Karna about it. Because the only thing he know Nitya might be happy with was seeing Hans Christian Andersen. But since the tickets were going to Surya and Indra, he needed something else. 

But Arjuna was also using this as a chance to get close with Karna. He wanted a time together with Karna where he could openly talk about things. Without Surya or that blue haired parasite around. And their son was the only excuse he had to do that. “Do you have any free time?” Arjuna asked. Hoping that Karna would not turn his invitation down.

“Sorry. I don’t think I can go out with you.” A rejection.

“I see...” Arjuna’s smile dropped into a frown. “It can’t be helped then...” his tone shifted from a cheerful one, into a sad one. It was very easy to notice. 

“But if you want to get something, I think a Danish-English dictionary will be nice. Nitya’s been interested in learning german since he started watching Danish horror movies.”

“I see. I’ll get that then. Thank you, Karna.” 

“Ah, no problem.” Karna said before he cut off the line.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Karna would rather not go out with Arjuna. He felt uncomfortable and awkward just with him. What to talk about aside from their son? Nothing. Karna certainly did not want to talk or ask about Arjuna’s private life now. Nor he wanted Arjuna to ask because he didn’t want to mislead Arjuna into thinking that he want to get together again. Karna was traumatized. Arjuna could easily accuse him over a shady test. Arjuna didn’t trust him at all and that made Karna’s trust gone as well. 

Since, Arjuna did the test without Karna knowing, Karna thought Arjuna was doubting him since the beginning that he did the test in secrecy. Karna still loved him. Even now, the wound Arjuna gave him still hurts. When Karna went to bed, he always remembered how Arjuna came home with that scent of cheating, and accused him of cheating. It was painful. And not only that, Arjuna was so cold and cruel to Nitya. Ignoring the boy when he called him father. 

But Karna thought, even if he didn’t want to be with Arjuna again. He didn’t want to see his son and Arjuna in bad terms. If he could, he wanted to help Nitya and Arjuna get along again. At least, Karna wanted Nitya to not ignore Arjuna anymore. He didn’t want Nitya to hate his father forever.

Karna put down the usual coffee and the croissant at Arjuna’s table. Arjuna returned again, just like usual. “Thank you.”

“Arjuna,” Karna called and the dark eyes looked up to him. “I have some time after noon this friday. If you can go out at that time, we can look for presents.”

Arjuna was too surprised that his jaw dropped. Okay. He really did not expect that since Karna had turned him down at the phone. “Eh...? Really?”

“Ah,” Karna nodded. “I want to get him a mini PC and you know better about that kind of stuff.” 

“I can.” Arjuna answered quickly. Fuck the schedules. Fuck the meeting. Karna was more important than anything else. 

—————


	3. Chapter 3

Arjuna was really looking forward going out with Karna. He couldn’t sleep at night before, smiling the whole night, thinking about spending time with Karna, shopping like how they used to do when they were still married. Just, minus that status and no more rings on their fingers. Plus they would be just shopping together as friends this time. So, no touching, no getting too close, no serious talks. Arjuna made these mental notes. Offending Karna was the last thing he want to do now. He wanted to take things slow and wait until Karna forgive him and open up. Yes. That was a good plan. They would choose a present for their son for his birthday next week at 21’th April. Arjuna really couldn’t believe it that Karna would actually invite him out. 

Arjuna checked his phone to see the time and he was an hour too early. He ditched his work and let the vice-director to take care of the things. Plus, if it just the programming job, he could do it from home. He had nothing to do at home anyway, except for sitting in front of his computer. Arjuna sat at the round fountain as he waited. He fed the birds some bread as he waited. His mood had been so good since the day Karna asked him out. Today was his first step on getting closer to Karna again. And he planned to do it right.

He didn’t mind waiting an hour, or if Karna came late. He was thinking one thousand scenarios on how he would spend the day with Karna. Maybe they could go for a cup of coffee... if Karna wants it. Patience. Patience. Arjuna sat there like a good boy, just waiting for Karna to show up. There were a few women and men eyed him. Some admiring him. And a young lady in particular went to call him with slightly red cheeks. “Are you alone?”

Arjuna gave a friendly smile. “Sorry. I’m waiting for someone,” he said short and clear and pulled out his phone, swiping it, not for anything but to show his disinterest with her. Karna was way more beautiful than her. He wanted to see Karna soon. Being coldly brushed off, she left, disappointed.

He tapped on the gallery icon and there was nothing in there except for some screenshots related to his work. He had deleted all pictures of his family that day he recieved that scam results. He also cleaned up his recently deleted folder and made sure they were clearly wiped. He also wiped all pictures by deleting the folders in his cloud and computer. Arjuna looked at his phone screen, saddened as he looked into his gallery. It used to be filled with pictures and videoes of Karna and Nitya. So much that he purchased 10GBs of cloud for them. He managed to recover the one he deleted on the computers, but most of them were corrupt. He only had two that he could save. Though, some parts of the pictures were damaged.

After waiting for an hour that felt like an eternity, Karna finally came. “Karna!” he called with the widest and sweetest smile ever. He was really happy seeing Karna. Ah, Karna was indeed so beautiful. His ponytail was tied lower today. It had gotten a bit longer too. Arjuna wanted to touch that. Karna’s hair was soft as far as Arjuna remembered. He used to touch them when he bed Karna. Ok. Arjuna need to stop thinking about that.

“Sorry. Did you wait?” Karna asked. He checked his watch and he was twenty minutes late.

“No. I just came.” Arjuna said a lie. A lie so happy. Arjuna’s looks were so gentle. 

Karna saw through it. “Sorry. The shop was crowded so I can’t leave by time.”

“No. It’s okay,” Arjuna shook his head lightly. He was already so happy that Karna came. “Let’s go. We’re goint to the bookstore first, right?”

“No. Wait a minute.”

“What’s wrong?” Arjuna asked, raising his brows.

And before Karna could tell him, the third person arrived. Karna also invited another friend. Because he didn’t want to be alone with Arjuna. And, Cu also wanted to get something for Nitya. He was pretty close with the boy. He had known Nitya since his birth and the boy was pretty fond to uncle Cu. Especially after the divorce of his parents. Cu had a backpack hanging over him, just off from his other job. “Yo. I just got off.” Cu said. 

Arjuna was pretty surprised seeing Cu here. His smile dropped. Oh, he looked forward too much that he didn’t think of the possibilities of this dude coming along. Sad. But Arjuna accepted it. Karna had his reasons too and Arjuna understand that Karna didn’t want to be alone with him. _Did Karna invite him at the last seconds? He didn’t told me about this guy coming._

Karna seemed pretty happy with Cu coming. “Thank you for coming.” 

Cu grinned. “It’s fine. Your kid is a cute one so I’ll have to get him something,” Arjuna was pretty distrubed by how much close Karna were with Cu. One thing was registered into Arjuna’s brain. This man was dangerous. A potential threat to Arjuna’s plan to get back with Karna. Cu looked to Arjuna as well. “Well. Let’s get going.”

Arjuna smiled. The fake smile of a yandere. “Yes.”

And they went to the mall and to the bookstore see some books first. Just as Karna told Arjuna at the phone last time, he went on getting Danish-English dictionary, a few novels and a good looking leather bookmark. Nitya’s hobby was unlike kids his age. He read mangas time to time, but he also read heavy books. Other that that, he liked to play some city building games, the war games and chess. His hobbies were influenced by both of his parents. And Nitya certainly didn’t like being treated like a kid. 

—————

When Nitya was about five he asked for a book about words from Arjuna. “There must be a book about english words and sentence. I need it.”

“What book?” Arjuna looked down to the boy next to him. 

“The book so I can understand english. There must be a book like that or it doesn’t make sense! There must be manual for that.”

Arjuna took off his glasses and put it down at his table and he faced his chair to his son. “You mean dictionary?”

“Is that it?” The boy asked with a ‘o’ forming on his lips.

Arjuna nodded. “It’s for people who need to translate words.”

“Translate?”

“It’s err...” Arjuna stopped a moment to think how to define that. “It’s the term for expressing a word in another language.”

“I see. Can I have that? I watched a cartoon and it’s in english. I don’t get most of it,” The boy said. His pouting cheeks were so cute. He was so frustated for not understand what the characters speak. It was a cartoon adaptedion of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid. Nitya was a big fan of those children books made by Andersen.

Indra gifted the boy the DVD but he didn’t actually check it. He thought it was the dubbed version. Turns out, it was the OG english with no subtitle. Nitya know a bit of english because he play some games and some TV shows had english. He was a smart boy. 

“Ahh. You want an English dictionary?” Arjuna chuckled a bit. He looked to his bookshelf. He sure had one there. It was there, next to his basic of chess book that he bought to study so he could beat Karna. Which he still lost. “I think you’ll be bored of it. It has nothing but words. I can get you the dubbed version of the movie. A dictionary is not interesting for kids.”

“I am not a kid,” Nitya was very upset with that. He furrowed his brows. He didn’t like it when people treat him like a kid, saying he can’t do this or that. Or he won’t be interested in something. “I need that or I’ll never understand what they say!” He demanded.

“I understand. I’ll lend you mine,” Arjuna sighed in defeat. He got up from his chair and went to his bookshelf. Nitya tailing him behind. He pulled the dictionary out. It had been years since he last used this. He quick flipped all the pages to see if he it was broken or not. It was fine. He handed it to his son who had been waiting. Arjuna was sure Nitya would be bored with it in ten minutes. 

But he was wrong. The next time Nitya asked for more cartoons, he asked all of those in english. He even asked for the ones he had owned, but the dubbed version. He wanted all Andersen’s cartoon in english. He learnt speaking english from the cartoons by replaying them over and over. He replayed it so many times that he memorized the whole line and was able to say the lines perfectly. He didn’t even miss the accents. He speak better english than his whole family. Kids learn languages faster. 

Nitya was ahead his whole class in the subject. He used hard vocabularies and wrote hard poems while his peers were still on the ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ level. It confused his teacher and Karna was called. His teacher said he never actually heard someone said the word exasperating in real before. He also used the word ‘extraterrestrial’ and ‘gravitated towards’ in his make a sentence homework.

By the next year, he also learnt chinese because he was interested in jiang shi movies.

—————

Their son was growing up year by year. Arjuna couldn’t help but smile when he remembered how cheeky his boy was. He missed talking to his son. He wanted to be called by his son once again. He missed the times where his son was demanding this and that. Nowadays, Nitya wouldn’t even look at Arjuna. If Arjuna came to the shop while he was around, he would quickly go upstairs and hide. Arjuna couldn’t blame him. Nor Karna and Surya tried to stop him from going upstrairs. They know their beloved child was very angry with Arjuna. 

After the bookstores, Cu suggested them to go to the department stores. He had an idea to get Nitya a lava lamp, since Nitya was staying at Karna and Arjuna’s old room when they were still living with their parents. Uncle Cu was not the smartest guy, but he remembered he wanted this as a kid because it was cool. So he figured he should gift this. Now he was picking the colors. “Hey, what color do you think he’ll prefer? Blue?” 

Karna was standing next to Cu and they both examined the lamps while Arjuna was eyeing them from behind. Filled with so much jealousy but also guilt. He was no longer Karna’s husband. Karna hummed as he watched the worker plugged the blue lamp, red lamp, and purple lamp to demonstrate the colors. “All of these are nice. I think he’ll be happy with either of these as long as you give it.” 

“Heh. That’s right. I wouldn’t mind to have a kid like that,” Cu smirked, totally ignoring Arjuna and Arjuna was really shocked, thinking that was a flirt. Even though Cu didn’t even slightest thought about what Arjuna had in mind. Cu was just Karna’s childhood friends. Nitya was more like his nephew. “I’ll take the blue one.” Cu said to the worker.

Right when they were at the cashier, before Cu pull out his wallet, his phone rang. He picked the call. It was from Emiya and hold it up with his shoulder while his hands taking out money from his wallet. “What? Now?” Cu said as he put the change into his wallet and pushed it back into his jeans pocket. “Why didn’t you tell me this morning?” Cu said and picked his plastic bag. “Eh? You serious? Okay. I’ll be right there.”

Cu turned off the call and looked back to Karna and the extra beside him. “Sorry. Have to go now.”

“Emiya?”

“Yap. Suddenly, one of the server had to go home and they really need help,” Cu said and sighed. Pain in ass, but he could not ignore it. “I’ll get going now. Sorry again.”

“No,” Karna replied. “Thank you.” He said and then Cu sprinted away. He sprinted quickly, as if he was a superhero going to save a day. Maybe he was.

Karna was fine with that. He didn’t want to bother Cu but it was really awkward to be alone with Arjuna. Karna was thinking if he should cancel their shopping and pick another date to avoid being alone with his ex-husband. But that would be super rude. Karna looked to Arjuna and the man smiled to him in the least offending way. Arjuna had guessed what Karna was thinking. “Do you want to go back?” Arjuna asked. 

Karna took a moment to think. He didn’t had any time out anymore until the birthday. And he needed help when it comes to electronics. This was Arjuna’s forte. The reason Karna chose to give Nitya a mini-pc was because Indra had an unused portable touchscreen monitor. He recently bought a new one and Nitya claimed his old one. But he couldn’t actually use it without the system. It would be way easier for Karna to get him the dictionary he wanted, but he wanted Nitya to stop being angry and Arjuna so Karna passed that chance to him. “No. Let’s go.”

Arjuna was hopeful when he waited Karna to answer. He was so happy when Karna didn’t say he wanted to go now. Arjuna nodded and they went to the PC store. There were some options, Karna looked at the price tags and specs. 

“Why are you getting a PC?” Arjuna asked as he looked at the printed booklet of the computers. 

“Indra gave Nitya his older portable monitor.”

“Ah. That one with pen, right?” Arjuna asked as he glanced once to Karna. 

Arjuna was looking happy. Partly because Karna was with him, the other was because he liked PC store. He enjoyed looking at the things there. They walked around and went to the mini pc counter. There was a booklet of the pcs. Arjuna picked up and flipped the pages. “Hmm... how about this one?” Arjuna showed Karna and pointed at the lowest mini pc box in the page. It was small. Just a box.

It was the best choice in the list of course. Kabylake. 320Gb SSD. 8gb of RAMs. Two slots of USB 3.0. Overall, it was great. Sufficient for mostly everything. A good choice for Nitya. Arjuna wouldn’t want his son to use a overly-slow processing computer. He knew Nitya would at least play some city building games here. And it would be quite a lag once the city get big enough.

“Sorry, this over budget.” Karna said as he looked around. He didn’t know the exact price for these things since the price kept on changing following the rate exchange and he couldn’t afford this one. 

“How much is your budget?” 

Karna named his budget and it was half of Arjuna’s expectation for a good PC. “Ah. I can help with the half.” Arjuna offered.

“No. It’s fine,” Karna looked at the other options available. He flipped pages to pages and the ones at the last pages were a bit too big for Nitya. Karna wanted something that he could bring to the shop and take home. There was one at the front page. “What about this?”

Arjuna looked at it. He felt it was no good. With that specs, it wouldn’t be good for the games. Arjuna wasn’t even sure that specs can run minecraft smoothly with the latest update. Probably not. “That’s a bit... too low I think. Karna, I can help you with this.”

“No. Thank you for your offer but it’s fine,” Karna sighed lightly and put down the booklet back to the counter. “I can save up for this.”

When they left the store, it felt bad for Arjuna because he could see Karna was disappointed that he couldn’t give Nitya what he wanted. He did some counting in his head, he should be able to afford it soon. But for the birthday, he’d ask Nitya to wait a bit more. Surely, his son would understand him. 

When the get to the main entrance of the mall, the fountain was there, it was raining hard outside. They didn’t notice it because the PC store was at UG level and they heard nothing except for music in there. The rain was heavy and the skies were dark. Karna couldn’t go back like this. He could get an umbrella from the supermarket, but there was no way to walk home in this hard rain. Plus there were some thunders too. Why so sudden? Why now?

“I can drive you back.” Arjuna offered. _Please, accept it. Please._

“No. I can take a cab.” Not that Karna wanted to take it because it’s expensive. 

“...I see.” 

“Ah. See you then,” Karna went to the taxi counter and called for one. Arjuna watched until Karna left before he went to the basement parking lot. He was actually planning to walk back with Karna and the come back to fetch his car. He just wanted some more time with Karna. But what could he do? It’s time up. 

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Tomorrow would be Nitya’s birthday so Arjuna wouldn’t come here. He would be, then, by himself, miserable in his house. But now he had to do something else. He entered the coffee shop and looked around. Surya was wiping one table. The customers just left. It was around two so the lunch customers had mostly left and coffee customers would be around at three. 

Surya glanced one to Arjuna. Ignored him and get back to work. He picked the tray with the dirty plates and glass went to wash them at the kitchen. Arjuna seated himself as he looked around, and Karna wasn’t there. Surya was alone. And Surya certainly wouldn’t take his orders. He never initiated talk with Arjuna since he tossed his son away. Out from the kitchen, Surya proceed on sitting at the one of the chair and turned on the TV hung at the wall. He rested his cheek with the back of his hand and watched the show.

Arjuna gulped and braven himself. Really. He had to ready himself everytime he initiate an conversation with Surya. There was nobody else, so Arjuna was ready for a possible punch. “Surya,” he called and the sun-dad did not reply or glance to him. Arjuna put the paper bag filled with the books he bought that day. “This. Can you pass this for Nitya for his birthday? ...you don’t have to tell him it’s from me.”

Surya didn’t budge. His eyes glued on the TV. Arjuna waited for a response, it never came. He gave up. Surya was less forgiving than Karna, so this was expected. Arjuna had to earn Surya’s forgiveness first before he can proceed. Arjuna returned to his table in silence after standing next to Surya for ten minutes like a child being punished.

Sometimes, Arjuna was amazed with how his father could manage to stay with this person for so long. Surya was scary, and he was ex-yankee. Indra chose to stay with Surya even after he got punched, albeit not by purpose. It was because he tried to stop Surya from killing Fergus because that pervert groped him. Still, not many would dare to stick with someone whom ever punched them. 

Thinking about Indra for some reason made the person appear. “Indra.” Surya called as the man entered the shop. His facial expression changed and it was less stern now. 

“Just finished lunch-meeting with my client. Decided to drop by,” Indra said as he smiled to Surya and then he looked at his son. 

Surya got up from the chair. “Do you want coffee?”

“Yes please.” Indra replied and he sat down. And of all seat, he chose the one across Arjuna. “Still stalking?” He asked without any sense of guilt. He simply smiled. Indra’s professional smile.

“...” Arjuna’s brow twitched a bit. He was pissed with Indra. All these disaster was actually this person’s fault. It was Indra who gave him the kit. Well, after the real test result came out. Indra went to sue the company and got it closed down, plus he made them compensate for all the wrong results. Apparently, there were more than few that got their fakily wrecked up. Some ended with divorce like Arjuna’s case. Some just made a big crack. There was a man that thought his child was not his but kept his marriage. After hearing the company’s fraud, he went on another test, turns out it was a mistake. The child was indeed, his. So the claim that one out five people cheat was not right. Just think it logically, was humanity that rotten that more than 1,5 billion people would willingly cheat? But whatever, Arjuna had fallen trap to the marketing ploy and had to pay. 

“It’s your fault,” Arjuna whispered. 

“Well, I simply placed the tree at the middle of the Eden. You ate the apple by your freewill.” Indra pushed his glasses up.

Arjuna sighed. He didn’t want to argue with his father about this. It was his own fault in the end. Blaming it on Indra would be an escape and not something Arjuna should do if he really want to reflect. He needed to accept his error and change. 

Then Surya came and put the coffee and a croissant in front of Indra. None for Arjuna. “Where’s Karna?” Indra asked Surya.

Surya had a moment of silence before he answered that. “Karna’s down with a cold. He’s sleeping upstairs.”

That worried Arjuna. “Is Karna okay?” He asked and stood up from it. Karna was rarely sick. The one who got sick more was Arjuna. Karna was strong and he usually didn’t catch cold even when Arjuna had it. Maybe once a year. He would always take care and pamper Arjuna when he was sick. Karna would always check on Arjuna every few minutes, and Arjuna will take the opportunity and ask Karna to feed him and give him huggles. Arjuna loved to be spoiled. Now, hearing Karna sick worries him a lot. “Did he see a doctor?”

“None of your business.” Surya coldly brushed him off and go away. Indra said nothing because he would not want to get Surya angry.

Arjuna frowned. He closed his mouth and looked genuinely troubled. He wanted to see Karna and check on him if he was really fine or not. Did Karna took meds? Indra was kind of sympathizing with his son. “Are you okay?”

“... yes. I’m fine. Thank you very much.” Arjuna answered him with the default formal line with light voice. 

Not long after that, Nitya came back from school. His figure with the backpack was so cute. Arjuna was pleased to see him. Ah, he wanted to hear his son’s voice. “Welcome back, Nitya. How’s school?” He asked the most generic question a parent can make.

Of course, the boy didn’t answer. He did eyed Arjuna for a few seconds with cold looks before he went straight to the stairs. Surya called him before he stepped on the stairs, telling him that Karna was sick, warning him not to get too close to him or he might catch the same cold. Nitya’s round eyes widened when he hear that. Surya made a cup of warm herbal tea. “Can you give to him? Make sure he drinks all of it.”

Nitya nodded and picked the cup carefully. It was hot. He went upstairs with the tea. His every steps were careful and cautious so that he wouldn’t spill the liquid. 

A few minutes later, Karna came down with the empty cup. He was still looking sick. He didn not look around as it was hard for him to open his eyes wide. He simply looked for Surya. Surya went to check on him, he touched Karna’s forehead to see if his temperature had gone down. “Sorry, papa-ue, for breaking the bowl earlier.”

Karna was dizzy and he dropped the bowl and it breaks. But Surya didn’t care about it. “Stupid child,” he sighed and pinched lightly on Karna’s cheek. “This is why I told you not to work at midnight anymore! Go back to bed. You’re not supposed to walk around like this.”

Age didn’t matter. Karna was forever Surya’s precious child. Karna noticed Arjuna and Indra were there. Though, he only gave a nod. Arjuna couldn’t help but smile seeing Karna.

After seeing his son and Karna, Arjuna was satisfied for the day. He left without words. At least there were people who will take care of Karna. Karna was just doing fine without him. At least, Arjuna could go home in relieve.

He spent his night and the next day just working. His only activity outside of visiting the shop and sleep, was work. He worked a lot mostly to pass time. He imagined his family was having a mini-party and his son was blowing off the candles. If only he could be there. No. If he go, he would only kill the mood. He already destroyed his family, he didn’t want to destroy his son’s birthday. Nitya wouldn’t be happy if he was there. He could only hope Nitya would accept the books he gave.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

“Are you okay now?” Arjuna asked as he met Karna at the front of the shop. Karna was sweeping the front after he set up the menu board for the day. The sun might be up for an hour and half already, but the real sun was Karna. It didn’t feel like a good morning if Arjuna didn’t see Karna. Ah. It felt like his chest was being pressed by something warm. 

“Ah.” Karna confirmed and he stopped sweeping to look at Arjuna. 

“Please don’t push yourself too much.”

“Ah. Thank you for your concern.”

“How was it, the birthday? Did Nitya said anything about the books?” 

“He likes it but he thinks it’s from papa-ue.” Karna said.

 _Ah. So Surya really didn’t tell him. That’s fine. He might not take it if he know it’s from me._ “I’m glad he likes the books. That’s good,” Arjuna nodded. “Karna...” he called, slightly hesitant.

“What?”

Arjuna breathe out to calm down. “That, I’m sorry for what I did. I hope you’ll forgive me,” he waited for Karna to respond after it. Karna blinked and looked away in discomfort. “I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. But I hope you will... I realize it after my mistake that I still love you. Will you give me a second chance?”

Karna was unsure. From that, he didn’t feel like Arjuna was lying. Or maybe he did but he got better in hiding it, Karna didn’t know. Half of him still loved this man. Half of him was too hurt and humiliated and feared that he would be tossed away once again. Karna closed his eyes. “Why did you not believe in me?”

Arjuna opened his mouth, but he closed it once again. He had no explanation for that. He had a good life and he took it for granted. “Sorry. I don’t know why I was so brash and stupid.”

“How long had you been suspicious that I might be cheating?” 

“I did not,” Arjuna answered the question truthfully. “I just did the test out of whim since it was given to me as a joke.”

“Is that paper the reason that you sleep with your secretary?” Karna asked and Arjuna nodded, painfully admitting his stupidity. It was all just a piece of paper.

“Were you bored with me?” Karna said with a hurtful smile. That thought was filling his head since that day. Maybe Arjuna was bored with him after years. Maybe Arjuna wanted someone new. Maybe Arjuna found Karna no longer attractive. Karna understood that he couldn’t actually reject Arjuna. He was physically dependent to him. It was just a matter of time until he need Arjuna to relieve him. But was that reason sufficient for a new relationship? What was the guarantee that Arjuna would be faithful?

“No!” Arjuna tried to deny and shook his head. He didn’t want to see that face. He didn’t want to see Karna looking that. No. No. “I would never. I was just too blinded with rage that I see nothing. I’m sorry. I promise, I will not betray you anymore. I will do anything you want. Please, Karna, allow me fix my mistakes.”

Karna stared at Arjuna’s begging face. He had to remind this was the same person that coldy glared at him and cruelly kicked him out alongside his son and humiliated him in front of people, accusing him of cheating. Arjuna was the person that actually spent not little sum of money just to make Karna a total stranger. Why did Arjuna even get the idea that Karna used him for money? Where did the love went that time? But Karna had forgiven him. If not, he wouldn’t be talking to him like this. But another chance for him, Karna wasn’t very sure. “...I need some time alone. Well then, I will get back to work,”

Karna went into the shop and closed the door. He flipped the sign to open. 

—————


	4. Chapter 4

“Papa-ue. I need your advice.”

Surya turned his head to his son. It was closing time and he was wiping the one black spot off the window when Karna called him. Surya noticed Karna was troubled. His flat was just naturally as flat as his, but Surya could sense it. Eyes were the window of souls and Karna, while it was not very visible on his face, his eyes convey a lot of emotions. Surya looked at the clock and he could spare sometime to listen to Karna before he go home. Plus Nitya was still upstairs, probably reading or writing something. Surya nodded and said “Sit down.” 

Karna did what he was told. He seat himself at the closest chair available and Surya sit across him. “What do you want to tell me?”

“I am unsure about what I should do,” Karna said as he looked down to his crossed fingers on top of the table. His shoulder was burdened with thoughts about Arjuna, their child, and the future. “I am not confident that I can be a good parent alone. I can’t provide as much as Arjuna can. I am not smart either. I am fine now because you are saving me. But I don’t want to be a burden forever. Arjuna had apologized to me again and again. He wanted to fix our relationship. But I am afraid.”

Surya had grudge to Arjuna. But he didn’t want to force his opinions on Karna without hearing how he truly felt. He gently asked another question. “What are you afraid of?”

“That I might not be able to support Nitya alone. I figured that going back to Arjuna is the best solution for this,” Karna said as he frowned. “I think Arjuna meant his word. He promised that he will not betray me again in the future. But I am afraid, I don’t know if this is the right choice or not.”

Surya sighed and leaned back. “He accused you for no reason. He made people talk badly about you. He kicked you and Nitya out. Why do you think it’s okay for him just to say sorry and go back as if it’s nothing wrong?”

“Arjuna is trying to make up for his mistakes. I want to give him a chance,” Karna spoke as the images of Arjuna’s hurtful expression, fillied with regret and sadness flashed into his head. “Everyone had mistakes. I don’t think it’s right to condemn him forever for a single mistake.” 

“How about Nitya? Are you sure he will accept it? He’s just as hurt as you.” 

“I can only hope he will forgive one day,” Karna smiled sadly. “I love Arjuna. I want to be with him.”

Surya sighed again and rubbed his head. Oh, this wasn’t surprising at all. He had thought that Karna would say this eventually, especially with Arjuna actively coming here, showing his lost puppy face. Surya didn’t like to see Karna’s longing face either when Arjuna left. He couldn’t stop Karna if he had decided. “I can’t tell you what to do. It’s your decision to make. But I want you to take some time and rethink that decision again. I don’t want to see you getting hurt twice.”

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Arjuna was speaking to his team for their project that needed to be finished in three months. The programmers were mostly nerds and people wih glasses. Including Arjuna. He always had his glasses on at work because that was the natural thing. He and the other twenty-seven programmers and a few people on the video call at the screen were currently working on a program for the one big telecommunication company. Well, these people were all of the staff, minus the securities and clearning services and the freelancers working overseas with them. Now, to think about it, this place started from a small group of five where they made some stuff when they were teenagers. 

They had gone a long way since then. His original teammates were gone by now except for Caesar who still works with them. Mental note for Arjuna to get some exercise or excessive sitting going to make him gain weight. Paracelcus had left for NASA. Jekyll was scouted into a gaming company, that was his passion anyway. The other two were working on their own out there. Who knows what they were doing. They were more the shut-in type. Some people were drawn into this field because of their hate of other humans.

The company’s computer run on their own private network and they used their own OS that was not accesible by public. The building was controlled by an AI that kept all their data safe with layers of walls. Who goes through which door was recorded and there were cameras installed around the corners someplace, though, not everywhere because some of the staff didn’t like being monitored neither does he. The murder mystery at workplace cliche won’t work here.

Well, everything was going normally and all of them go back to their own offices. Five or six people share one office. Caesar has his own too because nobody wanted to be with him because he was so bossy. Sure, he was the head programmer, but being constantly ordered around to get food or things was annoying and it slows down the work. Arjuna had a new secretary placed on the table outside his office now and this time, he chose an older man who was about his fourties. “Director, there was a phonecall for you just now. It was from your son’s school. They are waiting for you to call back soon as they need to speak for a serious matter.”

Okay that was just weird. Nitya had always been good and was never causing problems. The only times the teacher called was to talk about how he was ahead of the other kids and he need to be taught special lessons. “I understand. Thank you.” Arjuna thanked and he entered his office.

He picked his phone and dialed the number in the history. Nitya’s school was a private school. Arjuna sent him there because he wanted the best place. They must had called home and nobody picked, well, Karna was not there anymore, of course nobody was going to pick it up. That was why they called his office number instead that he registered. Karna probably didn’t add his own. A few beeps later, a woman picked up the call and Arjuna introduced himself as Nitya’s father, asking if there was anything. 

“Mister, your son got into a fight,” Arjuna was honestly, shocked and his face turned pale. “He got hurt and we need you to pick him up and take him home for today.” 

“I understand. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” Arjuna said and he hung up. Now he had to tell Karna first. If one of them had to go pick the boy, it would be Karna. Or at least both of them. He dialed Karna’s number a few times, but he was not picking. Maybe he was busy.

Arjuna went to the school on his own, really worried. He hoped it wasn’t anything serious. Nitya had never fought before and he had always been a good boy with good grades and attitude. Arjuna needed to know what really happened. 

—————

Nitya was very pissed with the crying kid across him. His hand was covered in bandage. That crying kid decided to stab him with the sharp end of the compass after Nitya punched him. It was really a dumb fight. That asshole was rude, talking bad about his parents, saying they had stopped loving him that’s why they divorced. Plus, saying Karna was a cheater pissed him off. It passed the line when the boy mocked Nitya, calling him fatherless. Rumors sure spread fast even with the kids.

The teacher said that she had called the parents and now, they were seated in the headmaster’s office and were waiting for their parents to come. The kid’s mom came first, a generic rich lady with the ‘I want to talk to your manager’ haircut and expensive handbag. Her high heels sounded like shit. She was screaming, a bit too hysterical as soon as she saw her son. 

“What happened!?” She asked the teacher as she hugged her son and glared to Nitya. The teacher explained to the mother than her son and Nitya got into a fight. And the mother was all over-reacting. “My poor angel. It’s okay, mother is here.” She said and looked at Nitya with disgust. Nitya didn’t give a shit about her and simply sit in silence to wait for Karna to come. He got angrier when he saw the one who came was Arjuna. 

The teacher asked the parents to sit down next to their kids and explained the situation. And the mother was not taking it easy. “I demand this kid to be expelled!” 

“Please calm down, we can talk about this peacefully. My son is hurt. Your child stabbed him. He need to apologize.” Arjuna was totally not happy with her. Now, this was a good private school and an expensive one so it was understanable that most of the students here came from rich family. Karna had to work hard so that he could afford this school because he didn’t want Nitya’s life to be very effected by his divorce. And Arjuna also didn’t want that effort to go to waste. 

“It’a self defense! That child punched my son first!” She barked. “My child clearly did nothing wrong,” she added and then she smirked. That typical smirk that meant she already won. “Also, isn’t that child not yours? Why are you even here? Why isn’t his mother here?”

That was one Arjuna couldn’t accept. She had totally used it. Arjuna was glad he was the one who came. Karna didn’t have to deal with this nasty woman. She would for sure insult him if he came. And Karna wouldn’t do anything because he was Karna and this women thought she can do anything just because she was rich. Wait, whose wife was this again? Oh, the security company chief’s wife. Arjuna looked at her with deadpan eyes. After this, he would ask for Indra for a little help. “Nitya is really my son. I suggest you not to bring my family matters to this. Please apologize and I will forget this and take my son home.”

“No,” she looked to the teacher. “Sensei, this man isn’t the father anymore, I need you to call his mother now. I need to talk to whoever that give birth to this evil kid,” She said and her son started crying again. Drama king. He cried like he was so in pain. It was a slight bruise on left cheek. While Nitya was sitting there, with a hand bandaged, looking at them like he was the hatred of the world. His natural cold eyes made him looked even more hateful. “I expect this child is expelled or I am going to transfer my child!”

The teacher sighed. She was also tired with this woman. She was just doing her job. But being a teacher in private school, this was not her first time dealing with entitled parent. “Ma’am, please calm down. Your son started it first by saying rude things.”

“Where’s the prove my son did it?” She scoffed. She didn’t stop speaking and keep demaning to see Karna again and again. Well, Arjuna was in hard position. Like she said, he was no longer the boy’s guardian, therefore Karna was the only one viable for this discussion. More reason for Arjuna to curse himself at night.

The teacher sighed in defeat, having no choice but to comply with the lady’s demand and she called Karna, after asking the number from Arjuna. Because his number wasn’t registered in the student data book. This time, Karna picked. She told him the incident and demanded him to come. Meanwhile they waited, the lady claimed she was going to sue and press charge on this case. Arjuna checked to his side and Nitya didn’t even move an inch, sitting there just looking around the room, waiting the time to pass. He scratched lightly the bandage, on the part where he was stabbed. It hurt and quite itchy. 

Karna told Surya that he need to go to see Nitya’s teacher and Surya gave him an instant ok. He was also worried for his grand. Karna arrived and he sat down, with Nitya in between him and Arjuna. The woman instantly insulted and berated him. “Do you never teach your son not to hurt others?!”

Karna looked to his boy and then to the other kid. He didn’t want to judge others. He did believe punch another kid out of anger was wrong and he had to scold Nitya after they went home. “Sorry. I’ll talk to my son and make sure this won’t happen again.”

“No. You have to take your son out of this school. He’s dangerous to the other children.” She demanded as she pointed to Karna, speaking with high pitched tone.

“This is ridiculous!” Arjuna was at the end of the rope after fifteen minutes of non ending argueing. 

She looked again to the teacher. “I’ll sue this school if that child is not expelled.”

It was not what Karna wanted to do. He wanted Nitya to have his life the same as before. But after thinking and looking at the bandage, it wasn’t a good idea to leave him here. Someone had hurt him physically. Time to transfer to the public school, that will be easier and closer too. “I understand. I’ll transfer my son to the public school. I’m sorry for this.” 

At least, with that, the problems were solved. The woman was satisfied with that. It was a silent ride in the car on the way home. Karna and Nitya both sit at the passenger seat. None of them know what to talk about. Arjuna didn’t know what to say because the problems were created by him. Arjuna dropped Karna and Nitya at the clinic to get the wound examined.

Later, Karna infromed him with text that the wound was deep enough, but nothing serious as it had been taken care of. And that, he was transferring Nitya to the public school closer to the shop. Arjuna asked if he could go see Nitya tonight at the parents’ house. Karna said okay.

—————

Apparently the incident was making everyone worry. Because he was the only child in the family, of course he got all the attention. Raikou came and was really angry at the insect that dared to to touch the boy. “It’s okay. Those insects aren’t going to touch you again.” Raikou said as she patted the boy’s head. She was kneeling at him, looking at him with sad frown.

“It’s okay. I’m transferring.” Nitya said to Aunty Raikou with an reassuring smile. She was super worried and she brought antiseptics and bandages with her. Talk about over-reaction. She left and Karna had to go too for night shift and Nitya looked at the bandage warping his hand. It felt uncomfortable.

When Arjuna came, they weren’t very pleased to see Arjuna coming for a visit with a bag of fruits. It was awkward to go there without anything. Arjuna entered his old home. Surya opened the door but said nothing and he left to the kitchen to continue his cooking and the door was still auto lock so Arjuna simply closed the door. Arjuna saw his son sitting at the dining table with the flattest face ever, with a new bandage, one from the clinic. 

“Are you okay? Does it hurt?” Arjuna asked and seat on the chair across the boy and out his bag of fruits at the table. “Sorry. It’s my fault...” Arjuna looked at the boy, waiting for a response. “If you need anything, please say."

Surya came out with dinner and served it on the table. He eyed Arjuna coldly for a few seconds, before go back on ignoring him. The only family member who would speak to Arjuna now was Indra alone. And he just came back. “Oh, you’re here, Arjuna.”

“Father, good evening.” Arjuna greeted.

Indra took off his tie and dropped his bag at the couch. “I heard you got into a fight,” The senior lawyer said as he sit next to the boy. “Why do you do that?”

The boy looked to Indra. “Surya-jiichan said I have to fight back if someone bullies me.” 

And Indra looked at Surya with that kind of eyes. _What did you say to this child?_ Surya flinched. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m just telling him not to let people bully him.”

Surya was a good parent and a protective one. He raised all three of them and Arjuna knew he was a capable parent, but seemed like his yankee part was something that couldn’t be washed off easily. Thankfully Karna never grow into a yankee. But now, their son punched someone. _Did Surya taught him to punch people? Nitya never punched anyone before..._

Indra sighed. He held the boy’s arms and looked at him. He loved his grandson. “It’s right when you defend yourself from bullies. But you must not punch people,” Arjuna watched his father advising his son properly. Indra was also a good father, even if he was a big troll. But Arjuna took back his internal words as soon as he heard the continuation of Indra’s words. “If you must punch them for any reason, wait until they punch you first. The one who started first is the bad guy. Before you use your fist, taunt them first. Once they punch you, you punch them back. And you can use self defense as an excuse and sue them.”

 _Wait. That’s not the right thing to teach a kid._ Arjuna looked at Indra in deadpan, Indra was still smiling like he did everything right. His glasses were so clear just as his smile. _Father, please don’t teach your lawyer logic to Nitya. He’s just a kid. Don’t corrupt his mind._ Arjuna wasn’t sure if leaving the boy with his parents were a good idea. Surya was yankee. And he already have some influence over the boy. Indra? He was even worse. He might even taught weirder things to his son. “Father, you’re not supposed to teach that to a child.”

“What’s wrong with teaching my grandson the right order of defending himself?” Indra asked as he raised his brows and glanced to Arjuna. Really, he doesn’t understand what Arjuna meant. For him, this was normal. If Arjuna heard this as a kid, he would probably take it in normally. But now he was an adult with common sense, he could see how bad Indra’s parenting were. Really, if it wasn’t for Surya uptight moral, he and Raikou would be even more messed up in head.

“No. You’re teaching him the wrong way. It’s supposed to end the part ‘you must not punch people’.” Arjuna replied.

“Then, that’s not self defense,” Indra rolled his eyes and chuckled, a bit evilish. He patted his grandson’s head. “Listen, if someone hurt you, you must make them pay for that. Of course, in legal ways. Law exists to shield good people. So, don’t let anyone step on you.”

And what was worse was Nitya nodding and genuinely taking in that advice. “I understand. I will not do the first punch next time. I will make them punch me first.” 

_No. Don’t listen to him!_ Calling Indra a good person was the least thing truthful. How many lives had this man destroyed? Arjuna could never know. But for sure, Indra’s sense of right and wrong was more like legal vs illegal. And Indra did believe he was a good and upstanding member of the society. Arjuna facepalmed. There were no savings anymore, his son had been brainwashed by his grandparents. Imagine a yankee that knew how to play dirty. _Oh no. My son is going to grow up into the demon king._

But who was he to say about his parents’ parenting when he was the biggest disappointment?

Arjuna was about to leave because he didn’t want to intrude the family dinner. All three portions were served and Arjuna was just ready to stand up, and for some reason Surya put a serving for him. At his front. “Hmph.” He tsunderely throw away his sight and take the seat next to Indra’s right side at the corner.

Seeing the warm meal, Arjuna was so touched. He hadn’t been served a homecooked meal for sometime. And one from Surya was special. Surya was scary when he was angry. A tsundere too. But he was pretty a softie. He hadn’t forgiven Arjuna for what he did, but this man was really regretting his mistake. If Karna was giving this man a second chance, Surya need to do the same as well.

_Thank you, Surya._

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Arjuna was still doing the same. He was still hoping Karna to accept him again. Sometims he went to see him, lately not so much because his work was getting busier as the deadline was getting closer and closer like a death god. He spent most of his time in front of the computer and did his communication via screen. Food was delivered by the securities. It was nothing new for them, when big projects were at neck, the securities had an extra delivery job.

Arjuna hadn’t come for more than two weeks and Karna had been kept looking at the door. He missed that man and worried too. He knew Arjuna had a project coming to the end and he knew how it also meant sleepless nights and overworking. When Karna was still there, he would make sure to help Arjuna rest if he had worked too long. He would brew the coffee and give him massage on shoulder as he worked on the screen. 

Karna kept on glancing to the door every few minute. Though, this was natural. His heat was supposed to be tomorrow, so his body was getting worked up. And he was more emotional than usual days. Lonelier too. And not bonding with his bonded alpha for months made him felt empty. Karna refilled the customers’ water, went on stand-by mode and looked at the door again.

—————

When Arjuna picked on the toothbrush and paste, he realized he was out of paste. He totally forgot about getting a new one. Luckily he could still get some of the paste out by cutting the body. The family size tooth paste lasts pretty long for him alone. Back then, Karna would make sure the soap and other things were not out, so it was rare for Arjuna to be out of something. Small things like were taken for granted. Arjuna hadn’t made much shopping except for coffee beans. When was the last time he actually cook something? A month ago? Arjuna didn’t hate cooking, but cooking in his empty house made him very lonely. 

Not only that, the whole house was messy. He hadn’t cleaned them and the floor and couch was getting dusty. It was eleven at night but Arjuna didn’t feel like sleeping because all damn coffee he drank the past days had made him very awake. So he decided that he would clean his house. He took out the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the living room and the other rooms, including the room that used to be his son’s room. Arjuna didn’t touch or remove anything for this room.

It was about one and half after he finished cleaning the whole house. He went to bed and looked to the left side of the bed. Karna used to be here. He touched Karna’s pillow, feeling the empty spot. “Karna...”

His eyes shifted up to the end table. He hadn’t flipped the calendar as it was still on last month. Arjuna turned the lamp on with his phone and grabbed the cardbox made calendar. He flipped to the first page. They divorced at the first days of new year. When Arjuna saw the red marker at the january page, he was quite worried about Karna’s heat cycle. He counted the days and it should be around this week.

 _I hope Karna’s okay. I hope he’s not having hard time... I hope the meds work properly._ Arjuna flipped it to the current month and placed it back to the table and turned the light off. He really didn’t thought about this when he divorced Karna. He was too self absorbed. They had been seperated for more than half a year. Karna was the only he wanted. There were people on his left and right, but they were invicible to him. Arjuna was ready to be single and in this stage for the next ten years, or at least until Karna accepted him again, or he find someone else. Though, it would be better if it was the former.

About their son, Arjuna was still clueless what to do to make the very red negative relationshiop bad they have back to the green, or neutral if that was impossible. Nitya was still ignoring him. Arjuna realized that the boy was more hurt and had a hard time to forgive, probably because this was his first and biggest trauma in life. Arjuna have him some gifts for him at the children day and for other occasions. He had no other way to communicate his feelings and sorry, so gifts was his only way. The boy refused once he know. Those gifts were still sitting at Arjuna’s living room. He would keep trying though. It wasn’t like he got any other ideas.

_Just a few times test run to do. I should be able to go see Karna soon..._

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

It was a perfect timing. Arjuna was right at the shop entrance and was just raising his hand to push the door when he saw Nitya walking towards him. And he stopped a few steps away from Arjuna. “Nitya, how’re you? The culture festival is the day after tomorrow, right? What’re you making this year?”

Nitya shrugged and looked away. He just wanted Arjuna to go in so he could go inside too and run upstrairs. But no, Arjuna was standing there, trying to have a conversation with him. “Do you want to go to the pizza court? They rerun that limited edition black pizza you liked. We can get that cheesy bite sides.”

Arjuna smiled, sighed in defeat, it wouldn’t be easy. He raised up the bag he was holding, showing it to the boy. “I bought some chestnut. Jiichan’s chestnut rice is delicious. I hope he’ll make it tonight,” _Keep talking. Don’t stop._ “How was school today?” He asked the ‘I have no topic’ question.

It was more like talking to himself. Arjuna keep rolling his brain to think of anything that can interest his son. Oh, and he remembered an email he recieved this morning. “Hans Andersen’s going to have another meet up event again,” he said and pulled out his phone to check on the dates. He said the date, eight days from today. “Do you want to go?”

That was interesting. Nitya wanted to ignore this man but that talk certainly stirred his interest. Last year, he didn’t got his sign because it was too crowded and the event ended before he could get one. What a regretful event. He wanted to go again but Karna wanted to save money for gifts for christmas. Indra would leave business trip that coincidentally the same date with the event, therefore cannot go.

And here was Arjuna, offering him the thing he ‘needed’. He glared at Arjuna, dark waves coming out from him as he was thinking whether his hatred or needs were more important. Very hard. On one hand he really wanted to go, on the other, not with this guy. Nitya’s furrowed angry looks looked like an angry bunny. Cute and not scary at all. At least to Arjuna. He finally opened the door to go inside. “Let’s ask kaa-san okay?”

Arjuna told Karna about him wanting to take their son for the event. He asked if it’s possible for them to go. Three of them. Karna looked to Nitya and asked if he want to go or not. The boy was shaking his head while nodding all together. Conflicted feelings. “What do you think?” Arjuna ask in begging tone. Please accept it. 

Nitya’s brows furrowed more and he was sweating a lot. He need five more minutes of internal war before he could decide. “Okay...” he answered forcefully. His needs won over his hatred force.

Arjuna was so over joyed that actually teares up a bit. He was so happy. Finally, his son responded to him after so long giving him the silent treatment.

.  
.  
.  
.


	5. Chapter 5

Ah, finally, after long nights of unable to sleep because of how much he looked forward it, the day came. Really, not even as a child Arjuna was so worked up at night that he couldn't sleep at night, not even when there was a school trip or a vacation. But apparently, a day out with his son and his wife not anymore was causing his eyes wide open even at 4 am and the digital clock next to him had just add another minute to the counter. Arjuna thought what he should do tomorrow. There was a restaurant in the theme park, he could take them there to have lunch. Or would they prefer a picnic? Or should they go for the black pizza instead? maybe they would prefer to go home after the event? Okay, the last one was pretty sad. Arjuna could only hope that his son was kind enough to let him treat them a lunch.

He could really use some sleep. They would go at ten so he still had sometime but his brain won't sleep. It was too worked up. Oh well, if he couldn't sleep at all, he could just shot himself with a few cups of black coffee before he go to pick Karna and Nitya up. But thankfully, he managed to get a short sleep not long after that and was awaken by his alarm at eight and half. He got ready pretty fast. His car had been cleaned and serviced yesterday. He also had prepared some snacks and candies at the box if Nitya wanted something on their way. 

He used to be the 'don't eat in car' type. The clean type. No eating on the bed or in car, or in any other place except for the dining room and the couch at the living room. And that too, was limited to chips, popcorn and biscuits. But not anymore. Not when he was trying to get his family's affection back. Plus, he had turned pretty messy too nowadays. He didn't even bother putting his dirty clothes to the laundry basket anymore and just toss them at his chair until it became a mountain and he would throw them to the washing machine. He brewed himself a cup of coffee before he go.

Arjuna was told to pick them up at their parents' house. Well, since their son lives there now. He had offered to drive to shop first and pick up Karna and then go to pick their son together, but Karna said no and he would wait for him at their parents' house The two were already on standby outside when he came, and he was ten minutes earlier. Ah, how happy he was to see them. Still, Karna didn't choose the front seat but that was okay. Arjuna was already grateful for this chance for them to go out like how they used to. He peeked behind with the mirror and Karna and Nitya’s flat expression were pretty much cache copy.

They got to the park and had their tickets exchanged into wristbands. The blue colored wristband which meant fast pass. They could do some rides if Nitya wanted it, but his main quest here was to get a handshake and a sign on this book he had with him. He even got the pen ready on his pocket in case. Thankfully, it wasn’t an actual holiday, but only a normal Sunday so it wasn’t very crowded. They went to the mini hall where there were a two kids and people in animal costume and of course the author whom looked like a kid himself, Andersen. 

Really, it was the right time for them to come. The event had just started and there weren’t many people. Nitya’s eyes were shining as he found his favorite author and he quickly ran to him. Standing at the empty line with a big sparkling eyes looking to the author. He raised his book, opened it to the first page, and offered his most expensive and cool pen on the other hand. “Andersen-sensei, please sign my book!”

Andersen picked the book and signed it. And then he had a bit talk with Nitya as the boy was talking about how he liked his stories and had read them all and watched the adaptations. Arjuna watched from a few meters and thought how precious that sight was. Arjuna glanced to his right side and Karna looked pretty happy too. His smile was beautiful that Arjuna actually have to make effort to roll his eyes back to their son. Nitya then raised his right hand while the left hugging his book. “Please shake hands with me, sensei.” 

He looked too happy. Karna hadn’t this wide of smile since last year’s Christmas. And after the handshake, he looked at his own hand, very proud of getting a handshake. A few more people had came, and some people were lining behind him before Nitya noticed. He looked to the author again, thanking him for the sign and handshake before he leave the line and went to his parents. Although, he didn’t leave as soon as that. He spent another ten minutes looking at the author from afar, filled with admiration. It was cute.

Being so happy and proud, Nitya was so docile and silent. All he did was smiling proudly and kept looking at his hand while following Karna from behind. Arjuna couldn't stop smiling too looking at that. "Ah, let's get some food. It's almost twelve. Do we eat at the restaurant here? My treat."

"Is that okay? You already gave us the tickets." Karna asked, looking down to his wrist band, while his mind was thinking about the budget he had. Because the inner restaurant was 500% mark up and super expensive. If they go to the pizza place, then Karna could split the bills. The inner restaurant was a bit hard for him to split bills. 

"It's fine. We can ride some rides after it too," Arjuna told him and then pointed to the ship ride. "We should really ride that one later."

Karna looked down to his boy. "What do you think?"

Nitya nodded and Karna was sure he either listened and didn't care at all or he just didn't. Because he was still with that smiley face and staring at his own hand. They went to the restaurant and were seated at the outdoor table with a big umbrella on the top. They were given the menu and Karna put it in front of his son, but damn, boy just didn't care. In the end, Karna randomly chose one of the menu. "You're okay with burger, right?" he asked and the boy nodded. 

Nitya's cute face sticked there until Karna talked. "We've talked about this yesterday. You have to wash that hand before you eat."

"Kaa-san, but my hand is clean and we eat with spoons! There's no need to wash it!" The boy pouted. Not wanting to wash his hand because it was the hand that Andersen had touched. He wanted to keep this forever. Not that Karna would let him. Or Surya. Or anyone else. Everyone just wanted him to get rid of Andersen's touch.

"But you're eating a burger." Karna said straightly.

"Did you order that just to force me wash my hand?!" Nitya gasped and looked like in shock. "I can't believe you do that! Why do you want to take away sensei's handshake so much?!"

"I asked you if you want a burger and you nodded," Karna sighed. His son didn't listen at anything at all. "Anyway, you have to wash your hands."

"No! I can eat a burger with knife and fork!" 

Watching the argument, Arjuna tried to join. "Nitya, you should wash--" Arjuna stopped because his son was glaring at him right he said the word 'wash'. And Karna was looking at him too. No. This was bad. Arjuna was in a pinch. He didn't know which to side. Should he side with Karna and told Nitya to wash his hands, that would destroy his little favor progression bar he just managed to get. But if he sided with Nitya and told him it was okay for him not to wash his hands, it would be very awkward with Karna. Which one? Arjuna looked at the boy, his eyes were looking straight to him. 'Do not tell me to wash my hands' look. After a moment of thinking, Arjuna chose to side with the boy. Priority. "It's... okay? He can just eat with fork and knife...?" he said, more like asking to Karna. 

Karna looked at Arjuna with 'that' kind of looks. He couldn't believe Arjuna would let the boy pass not washing his hands. How dare. But really, his face was just flat and looking straight to Arjuna with slightly flat brows. And Arjuna was scared. Now, Arjuna felt so complicated. "... please?" he added. Karna gave up. At the end, Nitya got to save his handshake. Not for long, because he certainly cannot avoid shower or Surya will kill him. Karna was easy to defy, but not jiichan for sure.

After the meal, they sat for some more time for coffee because it was also a cafe. Nitya was busy looking at the sign again even when he already stared at it for so long. Didn't seem like he was really interested with the ride anyway. Arjuna looked to Karna who was picking his cup and drank the coffee with cream. Arjuna had to look away for a couple of seconds because when Karna's lips touched the cup, somehow, that turned Arjuna on. Dangerous. And when Karna was drinking, he didn't even realize he was watched. He was looking to the sides where there were some children and their parents. The kids were screaming want to ride a roller coaster. Arjuna had gotten a bit sexual frustrated and Karna was getting more beautiful. Actually no, he looked the same but on Arjuna filter who got more and more desperate, Karna just seemed like the most beautiful being ever existed. 

"Nitya," Arjuna called the boy's name. He looked up, and his smile dropped, but he didn't look like his usual pissed self. Arjuna gulped once before he continue speaking. "Next time, if you will want to go out again, otou-san will be very happy. Anywhere is fine. I want to get along with you again. I will do everything you want. I hope you can forgive me. I will not treat you and kaa-san badly again," Arjuna spoke with begging face, frowns and a smile hoping. "Without you, otou-san is sad and lonely."

Karna touched the boy's back and he looked to Karna. "Otou-san's really sorry and promise won't do bad things again. Will you accept his apology?"

Okay. Now, Nitya looked at both of them with horrific pale face. He had gotten into a trap. He knew it. He knew it! That this trip was just a bribe. But he didn't expect Karna would be in this too! Why?! "Kaa-san, but this guy accused you of cheating! I don't trust him at all!"

"I am giving him a second chance. Everyone deserve a second chance." Karna said, he still had a bit doubt left inside, but, his feelings were still all for this man. He looked to Arjuna and the man was looking at him with jaw dropping face. Shocked that Karna made that statement. He was really frozen and didn't even move a millimeter. He didn't expect his second chance to came this fast. What kind of blessings this was?

“Thank you, Karna...” Arjuna lowered his head as a sincere sign. Now he was waiting for his son’s reply. He looked at the boy, wait a very gentle face. 

“No,” The boy answered right away. Now his happy mood from earlier shifted into anger and disappointment. He was very disappointed with Karna’s decision. “If kaa-san wants to go back there, go alone. I’m staying with jiichans. I don’t care if he kick you out again!” He said, loud enough to attract attention of the people. 

“Nitya, please tone it down. You’re bothering other guests.” Karna said to the boy after he looked around. Nitya didn’t look at him and he threw his sight on the opposite side of Karna. 

“I want to go back now.” He said and jumped down from the chair. Pissed. 

“Wait,” Karna stopped him by grabbing on both his shoulder and faced him. But Nitya was still looking away. Brows furrowed and upset eyes. “Please think about your father’s feelings. He’s really sorry and just want to fix it. Please give him a chance to say sorry.”

“No. He didn’t fucking care when you tried to tell him the truth. Or when you go out looking for him at nights because he turned off his phones! That son of a bitch fucked his secretary! I know! The kids in my class said it all the time!”

“Please stop that—“

“Kaa-san’s the same too! You don’t care about me anyway. You don’t read or cook for me anymore! All you do is work! You’re giving me to jiichans because I am a burden! I know it! You’re just coming out because you want to get back with that asshole!”

Karna’s jaw dropped. He looked at his son in disbelief. He was saying things that made sense. Those things were very true. And he also cursed. A few times in a row. Nitya realized he had ticked Karna off by that and now shut himself. Because now, Karna was looking at him, with a frown. He now felt that he failed as a parent because his nine years old curse. Karna sighed and shook his head in disappointment. He let go of his hands and simply looked down to him. “I’m sorry that I haven’t spending time with you lately. I will never give you away.”

Arjuna closed his eyes. _Well, this shouldn’t be easy after all._ He didn’t realize it until now that with his mistakes, he didn’t simply ruin his own relationship with his family. He ruined Karna and Nitya’s too. Arjuna quickly ran to get the bills and return to them as fast as he could. Some people were looking at him, but he didn’t have time deal or think of them. Both were waiting outside. “Let’s go back now... okay?” 

Now, Arjuna would rather see his son ignoring him like usual rather than crying like this. He was sobbing, covering his eyes with his right arm. Kids on theme parks were supposed to be happy, not crying. Nitya didn’t cry when his parents divorced. He didn’t cry when Arjuna ignored him. Nor did he cry when they got kicked out. He made sure not to cry because if he cry, Karna would feel even worse. Things were a bit complicated, but it was fine. The thought that Karna forgiving Arjuna frustrated him. So easily. _Kaa-san have stopped loving me._

Karna wanted to grab on his son’s hand, but his hand was slapped away. Nitya walked on his own. He knew which direction to go. All while crying and his only support was the book Andersen-sensei had signed for him. The whole way back was Nitya ignoring them both and kept himself silent. Now Karna got the same silent treatment. 

They arrived at their parents’ house and Nitya went to press the bell. Surya opened the door and was shocked to see his dear grandson’s eyes all red and swollen and he looked so sad. He wanted to ask, but the boy dashed into the house and ran into his room. Surya looked at Karna and Arjuna, whom seemed very troubled and guilty. “What happened?” Surya asked.

“We’ve made him angry,” Karna said and frowned down. He told him about Nitya not accpeting their reconcilement. And that he was angry at Karna too because he didn’t spend much time with him anymore. Karna never took him out anymore. At usual sundays, he’d chose to take some shifts instead. This time was a special ocassion because Arjuna was present and Karna wanted them to get along again. Plus, there were his grandparents who could take him out at the other sundays. Surya was always present. Karna thought that was enough and too focused on the financial that he neglected Nitya’s needs for him. “Papa-ue, I didn’t realize that he thought I was giving him to you.”

“You should go and explain it to him properly,” Surya said and Karna nodded. He went into the house to explain it again to his son, who was under his covers, crying more.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Seeing own's son crying left a bad feeling for Arjuna. The next day, he went to the shop again, this time he choose around the time Nitya would be coming back. And he didn't even wait to the shop first. He wanted to speak to the boy. Arjuna skated out at the way usually his son walk to go back for a few minutes and when he saw Nitya appeared from afar, he went to him. 

"Nitya!" He called and waved and ran to him. Now, he head some distance before they would reach the shop. Maybe about ten minutes. Meanwhile, Arjuna would walk beside him and speak to him. He initiated the conversation with the usual 'how's school?' question before he talked about the main conversation. He talked about how he wanted to be a good father and wanted to be a family again. And that, Karna had accepted his apology and now, he wanted his son to forgive him too. "How can you trust me again? Otou-san will do anything you want. I promise I will not be mean again... Ne, do you want to grab a pizza?" He desperately keep talking as he walked beside the boy. "I was told you got a pc on your own. Want to talk about it? Do you want the latest RTX? I have one of those."

Nitya stopped on his steps. He looked to the ground and kicked on a small pebble on the street. "Aunty Raikou told me that I was born before you two get married. Aunty said that you think I might be some else’s kid because kaa-san used to be super close with another guy. Suddenly, it makes a lot of sense. I am an accident. No wonder. I’ve must been a bother.”

Arjuna's forehead sweated and he wiped it with his sleeve. _That bitch! What did she say to my son!? No. You're not an accident! You're a planned accident! If I didn't do that, I'll never had the chance to marry Karna! Sorry! Just because I made you for that, doesn’t mean I don’t care about you!_ “Nitya, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re not an accident at all. It’s just we messed up with the order.”

“That’s what accident is.”

"We got married because we love each other," Arjuna made an excuse after a series of weird laugh. Of course he could never say to anyone that he used broken condoms on purpose to knock Karna up. Especially, not to his dear son. "I still love you two even now. I've learnt from my mistake. I won't doubt anymore. Can we be a family again?"

Arjuna paused for a second he walked again, following his son. "It's not like kaa-san doesn't care of you anymore. He's just trying to hard to work so he can take care of you. He doesn't have much free time for himself. He treasures you that’s why he want to provide the best for you. If we're back as a family again, kaa-san can take it easy and he can spend more time with you, like he used to."

Arjuna smiled a bit, looking at the small figure from behind. Nitya was grabbing on his bag strap as he walk. Arjuna could see that his son was not pleased to see him. Probably pouting too. Arjuna kept talking as they walked, not so much further. Arjuna didn’t know what Karna said to their son, but it certainly worked. Nitya wasn’t that angry at him anymore, though, it was more akin to disappointment now. “I’m worried for him... I want him to relax. Lately, he’s been anxious.”

Nitya glanced back for a brief second. “Kaa-san said he won’t work at sundays anymore. He’s going to read with me again.”

Arjuna smiled up. That voice sounded genuinely happy. “I see. That’s great.”

He walked following the boy from behind, talking about stuffs. Not much, they were close anyway. But Arjuna was relieved because Nitya seemed to get over his anger issues now. Though, he really didn’t appreciate what Raikou told Nitya. Now his son was thinking he was worthless and ended up ‘accepting’ he didn’t matter that much. Arjuna’s next goal was set. He wanted to change that idea.

When they opened the door, Karna was happy to see them together. He brushed his bangs to his ears. And that small gesture was meant something even if it was subconcious one. Arjuna blushed slightly. With wide eyes he looked at Karna, who was wearing his typical server attire. He wanted to touch those pale fingers. He wanted to brush that white hair. He wanted to embrace Karna.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

Karna still had his night work at a bar. After the coffee shop closed, he had half an hour of break to eat dinner, usually something Surya left for him, or just plan cup ramen, and then he would go to the bar and his shift started at seven to two. The bar, which was also a host club, was often crowded with people, he had little time to sit down. He had to deliver drinks from table to table, pouring the alcohol to the customers’ glasses.

Working at these place, it wasn’t weird for Karna to encounter some form of sexual harrasment. For example, a older bald man would try to grope his ass. Karna simply ignored it because this didn’t worth his time. Tonight, a bunch of dudes sat at the middle couch seat. They asked Karna to sit with them, so he did. He sat at the corner of the L shaped couch and the dude put his arms above Karna’s shoulder and pulled him. All while Karna was still pouring and thanks to that, he spilled a little of the sake. “I’ve always felt you’re weird. As expected you’re an omega. A taken one. You’re working here, does that mean you’ve got ditched?” The dude asked with arrogant tone. 

Karna pushed him away and got up fromt the seat. He put down the bottle at the table, still polite. “Sorry, sir. I’m just a server. If you wish, I can call a host to help you.”

Overall, nothing was special. He called the host to serve the guest for that part. After the guests left and some cleaning, alone, because all the other staffs went home first, Karna could leave. After the cleaning and stuff, he went home at two and half. The bar wasn’t that far from the shop he currently freeloading in, so a couple minutes of walk in the dark streets. 

He arrived at dear home and pulled out the key from his coat's breast pocket. He opened the door and enter the building. He didn’t turn in the lights. After making sure the door was locked, he went upstairs to his room. He took off his clothes and changed. He pulled off his band and he scratched his head, messing the hair. It felt cool. He brushed his teeth and wash his face and went to bed after he plugged his phone to the charger.

Karna was just about to fell asleep when his phone rang. Just an message. He got up, walked to the table to check. It was just from Arjuna, telling ‘good night’. It was enough to make Karna smile. _Ah, good night._

He didn’t reply and went back to his bed. This had been his life for a while. Tomorrow, seven at the morning, he had to get up and get ready. A quick shower, washing his shirt from last night. And then, he went down to open the shop. When Surya came, things were ready and it was another start of a day.


	6. Chapter 6

Another new project and Arjuna’s eyes were glued into his monitors. As much as he wanted to see Karna and their beloved child. He was stuck in the lab’s office with the other programmers. There was no day off, not even sunday. They wanted to finish before christmas, though, it seemed unlikely. What a disaster. The other programmers were mad too. All of them were working like shit fast so that they could finish it before christmas.

But of course they didn’t make it. And they all looked like zombies. When they finished at 23:45 at 25’th december, they screamed and some cried while hugging. At least they got to go home before new year. Arjuna took off his glasses and leaned back and stared up to the ceiling and sighed. Finally. They transferred the data to the overseas client via secured line.

Arjuna had totally saw this before hand. He had already entrusted his presents to Karna three weeks prior because he knew the big fat chance he won’t make it. He got one for everyone. He could only hope they liked it. He went home the last after turning off the lights.

It was a suprise when he got home and saw Karna at his doors, waiting for him. He parked his car and got out and went to Karna. “Karna, why are you here?” 

Karna smiled and hummed. He closed his eyes for a second. “You’ve been busy. I am concerned.”

Arjuna was hesitating at first, but he raised his hands slowly, and pulled Karna into his embrace. “You’re cold.”

“Ah,” Karna nuzzled onto Arjuna’s cheek. He hugged back. “Did you get your work done?”

“It was tiring. Everyone looked like zombies,” He said and chuckled. Karna laughed as well. He let go of the hug and stared at Karna’s face. So beautiful. He opened the door with his key and opened it wide. The light automatically turned on when he opened the door. “Do you want to come in? ...it’s a bit messy though.”

Karna nodded. He did expect the home to be messy. But he didn’t expect it to be this messy. The sink was filled with unwashed plates that had been sitting there for who knows how many days. The table was the same as well. Bowls, empty wine bottles and wine glass. Karna looked back to Arjuna, he could only smile and laughed nervously. Karna took off his coat and hung it at the chair and proceed on cleaning the table. Taking them to the sink, and wash them all. He used the brush because dome of them foodstain was hard as fuck.

“I’ll do it,” Arjuna said as he went to Karna. He wanted to take over, but Karna looked at him flatly.

“How messy is your bedroom?” Karna asked and Arjuna flinched awkwardly.

“I’ll go clean it right away.” Arjuna said and he sprinted to the bedroom and picked up the scattered clotes on the ground, quickly throwing them into the laundry basket. But it got worse because it looked so much like an two scoops ice cream. He quickly made the bed next, changing sheets that had been there since last year. In panic. He threw away the paper scarps at the end table, only to find his trash can overflowing with trashes. _Karna will be super disappointed with me._

He got even more panicked when he heard Karna walking towards him. He held the trash can, momentarily blank on what to do. Karna entered the room, witnessing Arjuna hugging a trash can with a weird face. And it was awkward. “Are you okay, Arjuna?”

“Ee— Everything is okay—“ he said and awkwardly put down the trash can and the papers fell out. “You finished washing?”

“Ah,” Karna said. “You haven’t eat dinner, right? I’ll go make something.”

“No. It’s fine...” Arjuna shook his head and picked up the papers on the floor and pushed them into the trash can. “There’s nothing in my fridge. That eggs had been there for months. I don’t think they are still edible.”

“Then, I’ll go to konbini and get some ingredients.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“It’s fine. You’re tired. Just rest. I won’t take long,” Karna raised his hand to his chest, making the stop sign. “What do you want?”

Arjuna sighed pleasantly. “I’d like some soup.” 

Karna smirked. “Understood. I’ll be back soon.” 

Karna walked to the 24/7 store and get the dashi stock and udon noodles. Some nori and leek and some meat. Basic udon but still good for cold nights. He went back and rang the bell, Arjuna quickly opened the door. He surely was running. Karna heard the steps. 

It took him about ten minutes and he served the niku-udon to Arjuna and sat across him, watching him eat.

“It’s warm,” Arjuna commented after the first slurp. He liked it. Things made by Karna was different. It warmed into his heart too. “It’s delicious.” He slowly ate the noodle.

“That’s good,” Karna said and watched Arjuna few more minutes, enjoying the sight of Arjuna’s calm and gentle expression. He got up from the chair and picked his coat. “You should go to sleep soon.”

“You’re going back?” Arjuna asked, looking sad.

“Ah,” Karna answered as he looked back to Arjuna.

Arjuna also stood up. He took a moment of silence before he speak once again. He frowned with begging looks. “Can you stay here tonight?”

Karna looked around for a few seconds, blinking, looking away from Arjuna. When he returned his eyes to Arjuna. “You haven’t finished your udon,” He said and put down his coat again and seat himself next to Arjuna.

Arjuna nodded and returned to his seat and slurped the noodles and soup in high speed. It took him 35 seconds to finish that half bowl. Okay, that was hot. He looked back to Karna with forrowed brows. “I’ve ate it.” 

Karna chuckled at that. He covered his mouth the back of his hand. Arjuna could only blush at that. Arjuna’s face was so innocent as he brushed on Karna’s cheek with his finger. He waited a moment to see if Karna would push him away. He didn’t. “Karna, do you feel uncomfortable wth this?”

“No,” he answered and held Arjuna’s hand to his cheek. Arjuna closen their faces slowly and brushed their lips together once. And they parted for a few seconds, and once again, and again. Then, he sticked their forehead together. Silence followed as they closed their eyes.

When Karna opened his eyes, he saw the hard buldge coming out from Arjuna’s pants, looking painful and Arjuna was embarrassed that he couldn’t control he libido. That also kind of turning Karna on and he brushed his legs together. Not only Arjuna was horny there. Karna needed skinship as well. They both were deprived from it. “Do you want to go to bed?” The blue eyes asked directly to the dark eyes. He wanted Arjuna as much as the man wanted him. Lust.

“I’m sorry— I can’t hold it.” Having Karna here was fluttering his heart. And Karna’s smell was sweet and inviting. He got up and quickly picked Karna up in bridal style and ran to the bedroom. 

And as soon as they entered, Arjuna gently put Karna on the bed. But before he progressed, he pulled off Karna’s hairband first. Because Karna once said it hurts.

Arjuna pinned him under, putting his leg in between Karna’s thighs, touching Karna’s hard member with his knee. And Karna was pretty hard himself. That made Arjuna happy. He landed a kiss on Karna and shoved his hand inside Karna’s shirt while the other supporting his body. His finger teased Karna’s nipple and he feathered kiss on the pale neck. This part smelled the sweetest. Arjuna breathe onto the skin. 

He pulled the shirt up and sucked the nipple while his hand exploring down and rubbed Karna’s member, teasing it. He pulled down the pants and underwear all together and continue kissing. He raised Karna’s legs, positioning himself at the entrance and slowly pushed inside. Arjuna watched as Karna slowly breathe in and out. Arjuna also had to adjust himself inside too because it was so tight. So tight and hot. 

Arjuna started to move slowly, thrust by thrust until it wasn’t so tight anymore. He fastened his pace slightly. And suddenly, Arjuna was alerted by the sudden change of the scent. He looked down at Karna whose face was all red and breathing hotly with his mouth, looking up to Arjuna with wet lewd eyes. The heat came out from nowhere and Arjuna couldn’t stop. That scent just made him even harder and bigger than before. He grabbed on Karna’s legs and rest them on his shoulder. He moved in and out quickly and Karna screamed.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Aww — aru— Arjunaa— ahh ah...” Karna was a mess. He grabbed on his own hair as he screamed. His other hand clawed onto the freshly changed sheet. He felt too much. _Amazing! Amazing!_

That voice made Arjuna’s head so hot that started to nosebleed. But he couldn’t stop right at the middle. He wiped his nose with his sleeve while some of the blood fell on Karna’s stomach. He grabbed on Karna’s slim waist and moved in faster, making Karna scream louder. 

Arjuna lowered down his pace. Moving in and out slowly. “Aru— Arjuna— feels... good... ahn.. ah! Ah!” Karna said with his teary eyes and reddish cheek. He had a line of droll coming out from the side of his mouth.

Okay. That made more blood rushed to Arjuna’s head his sleeve was totally stained red. He would need to wash this with whitening chemicals after this. But for now, he just kept fucking Karna, listening to he sweet moans and screams, now he moved fast again. He didn’t slow down anymore until he thrusted a few last time, he pushed to the deepest spot, and released inside. Karna could feel the warm liquid spreading inside him. He opened his arms, asking Arjuna to come and the kissed more while Arjuna was still locked inside. He could feel Karna’s twitches inside. He was feeling really good.

When the parted their faces, Arjuna saw his blood at Karna’s face. His nosebleed was a nasty one. He really didn’t want to pull out yet, so he just wiped it more with his sleeve, but it didn’t stop. He opened his hand under his nose, carrying the blood dripping out from his nose. _This is the worst._

Karna calmed down after a moment, though, still in heat. He looked to Arjuna’s troubled face as he hold on his nose so that the blood didn’t came out so fast. He raised his head, facing up and pushed the blood inside, all when he was still locking into Karna. 

“You should grab a tissue,” Karna told him. He moved himself and the dick fell out from his hole. He moaned a bit and shuddered when the filling came out. Karna looked at the bedhead, and there was the tissue. Though, for some reason, it was not the tissue box but toilet paper. And what that reason was, Karna knew it. He teared some paper and handed it to Arjuna. He also wiped the blood on his face. 

After the nosebleed stop, Arjuna wasn’t yet finished. He flipped Karna’s body and take him from behind. Karna’s slick and wet hole swallowed him whole as it was no longer that tight like their first round. Plus, Karna was super wet already. The juices couldn’t stop coming out as Arjuna thrusted more. Really, Karna couldn’t control his voice at all. And after a year not having sex, he was so hungry. Karna’s sex drive was unstopable.

Arjuna shuddered as he shot his seeds inside again. After a period of locking, he pulled out and Karna pushed him down. And he shoved the dick into himself. Karna moved his hips up and down. The sight of Karna enjoying himself on the top was quite mesmerizing. Karna moved his hips faster and faster as got closer. He bit on his lower lip as he pushed himself up and down. And when he came, he shuddered and he held on Arjuna’s hands. Their fingers crossed.

“Ahnn...” he let out as he stirred his ass slowly. Still sensitive from just coming. He moved his ass until Arjuna came.

Karna pulled up and the juices dripped out from him. He laid on his side next to Arjuna. When his thigh pressed on his dick, he trembled slightly. Arjuna saw that and that was hot. He leaned down and kissed Karna’s forehead, brushing the white hair while smiling gently. Karna looked to Arjuna, still with the flustered face.

Suddenly, Arjuna was reminded of something. He opened the drawer of the table next to his side of bed and take out Karna’s marriage ring that he returned last year. He showed it to Karna and the man sat up. 

“Karna, will you marry me again?” Arjuna asked. Karna didn’t answer for a while. He stared at Arjuna and then the ring, back and forth. And Arjuna thought he did something wrong. “I’m sorry— You’ll want a new one, don’t you?”

“No. I thought you sold it already,” Karna said.

“Eh? I see—” Arjuna coughed once, just to clear up the awkward air. “No. I didn’t... but if you’d rather have a new one, I’m fine with it.”

Karna smiled slightly. He shook his head and gave his hand to Arjuna. Arjuna was truly in bliss when he touched Karna’s fingers, and then the hand. And he slowly put the ring back to the place it used to be. Unable to held back his emotions, Arjuna’s eyes were teary. He had never been so happy ever since that day he mistaken. The emotions were so heavy that Arjuna felt his chest could burst anytime.

—————

When Arjuna woke up, he found Karna leaning on his top and their bare chests sticked together. Karna’s close face made Arjuna’s heart beat so fast. At a moment, he thought he was dreaming. Karna smirked to him and kissed his cheek. “Once more.”

Arjuna smiled blankly. Processing Karna’s request. “Again...?” _But we did it five times last night? Was that not enough for you? I’m pretty sure you’re pregnant now, considering you got your heat last night? Wait— what!? Wait! Wait! Wait!_

Karna licked that part he just kissed. Then, he bit on Arjuna’s earlobe. “No?” Karna asked with the most sexy and sensual tone. Not to mention his scent was still pretty strong.

And it was this moment, he know, he had to fuck. Again.

They had two more rounds at the morning and then they went to their parents’ house to see their beloved son and to tell their family that they had gotten back together. And by the next month, they would have to tell them about the second child.

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

When Karna reached his late trimester, not only Arjuna was over-protective. Literally, Surya was more protective. Arjuna, whenever he was home, would not let Karna do anything. He would take over the vacuum cleaner and he would make dinner even though his skills wasn’t that good. But Karna would do the seasoning, so it was fine. But Surya? He literally just ditched the shop to his part-timer and went to Karna’s house after he went to get the groceries. Surya pressed the bell button and was greeted by Nitya as he opened the door. “Good evening, jii-chan.” Nitya was always happy to see the yankee grandfather.

“How’re you?” Surya asked as he took off his shoes at the door. “Is there anything new today?”

“Nothing at all.”

Surya smiled at the boy. “I see.” He said and was walking his way to the kitchen when he saw Karna was napping on the couch with a warm blanket. He silently tiptoed to the couch and patted Karna’s head lightly. As much as Surya wasn’t happy with Arjuna knocking his dear son once again— he still thought they got married again because of this— he could only do his best to support Karna right now. By cooking healthy food for Karna and soon arriving grandson, Swarna.

Surya took over the kitchen and started to by wearing the apron. His special apron when he came here. He took out the ingredients and started with washing the boneless chicken breast. Because he wanted to make steamed chicken breast and koji soup. Nutritious and delicious. His dear son need those. 

Karna was awoken with the good smell and rubbed his eyes as he went to the source of the inviting delicious smell. He still had his blanket over his shoulders. “Papa-ue. I didn’t hear you come.” he called and yawned.

“Ah, you were sleeping,” Surya said while humming a tone as he opened the steamer’s cap. And the good scent spreads into the room. “Sit down, it’s done,” he told Karna and he held on the hot bowl that was just out from the steamer with two piece of cloth. He served a big piece of the chicken breast on Karna’s plate.

Karna did as he was told. He sat down. “Thank you, papa-ue.” He said as he picked up the silverwares and started to eat. The steamed chicken’s sauce tasted the best with rice. It was just really good and natural.

“Eat slowly there’s still another one waiting for you,” Surya said gently. Karna was really happy. Surya was so much caring that he would spare some time to cook special mini pre-dinner meal for Karna at four pm. And he would watch Karna to finish his meal. “Then, I’ll go back to the shop now.”

“Sorry for the trouble, papa-ue,” Karna said as he followed Surya to the doors.

“What? I’m just taking care of you,” He said as he wore his shoes. “Be careful, don’t try to do things if you can’t. Call that sorry excuse of a husband you have. You should slave him around, you know?”

“That’s a bit extreme. But, I will call him when I need something,” Karna responded with a troubled smile. Now, Surya often said something like this so it wasn’t anything new. “Be careful on your way, papa-ue.”

.  
.  
.  
.  
.

When there was ten years age gap between Nitya and Swarna, and Karna was busy taking care of the baby all day long, jealous was bound to happen. Because Nitya was a big mama-boi and he wanted Karna’s attention most of the time. It didn’t help that he still dislike Arjuna. When Arjuna went to Nitya’s room to check on the boy, he was sitting on his bed with the loneliest back ever. “What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?” Nitya asked back as he looked coldly at Arjuna. “You didn’t knock.”

“Sorry, thought you were taking a nap. Just coming to check,” Arjuna said as he walked next to the bed. Oh, he didn’t dare to sit down because Nitya didn’t want his dirty ass to be on his bed now. “Are you sulking?”

“No. Now leave me alone.” 

“You hadn’t talk much to us lately,” Arjuna sighed. “Is there anything happening at school?”

“Not in particular.” The boy answered as he swung his legs. The windy feeling was nice.

“Kaa-san is worried if you’re getting bullied again.” 

“Really?” Nitya looked to Arjuna with that face saying he did not believe that at all. “He is busy with Swarna nowadays anyway. It’s not like he thinks about me anymore.”

Arjuna chuckled at the childish envy. He sat down at the floor, and leaned his back to the side of the bed. “There’s no way he doesn’t think about you. When you were a baby, he spent all his time taking care of you too. Taking care of a baby is hard.”

“Oh well, but I was an accident and Swarna is not so he must like him better,” Nitya sulked with dark face. “I’ll move out from here once I’m fifteen.”

“That’s not an adult yet,” Arjuna said. “I can’t allow that. You need to be at least eighteen to move out. And we still care of you. So there’s no need to be jealous.”

“I only need kaa-san.” 

_Okay, that hurt quite a bit._ “Well, you can always help him with taking care of the baby? Don’t you think Swarna is cute?”

“No.”

 _Why are you problematic? You’re even at your rebellious phase yet. Spare me. I am not ready for that day._ Arjuna tried to keep the conversation on going. “You’re pretty cute too.” He smiled to the boy.

That made Nitya shot him the looks of disgust. “That’s creepy. When kaa-san calls me cute, it’s okay. But it’s creepy when you’re the one saying it. Stop it. Go say that to your kid.”

“No, but you’re my son too.”

Nitya jumped down from the bed from the opposite side where Arjuna sat on. “Creep.” He commented and ran out from his room as he felt unsafe. 

—————

“Karna, you should go tuck Nitya. He’s been wanting your attention,” Arjuna said as he take over the bundle from Karna’s arms. He looked down to the baby and yes, he was cute. Both of his sons had Karna’s icy eyes. “I talked to him today. He’s jealous that you spend too much time with Swarna. What a problematic child he is.”

Karna smiled at that. It was nothing new about the only son for nine years being needy. Probably, being the only child in the family for almost a decade made him a bit unforgiving when people doesn’t pay much attention to him. 

Karna went to Nitya’s room. He opened the door silently and saw the boy was making a tent inside his covers and he was probably reading something because the flashlight was on. When Karna walked inside the room, Nitya quickly turned off the flashlight and faked sleeping inside there, even if it was too late. But, efforts. Karna sat down on the bed and pulled the blanket tent off, revealing Nitya hugging the book Andersen signed. He just didn’t get bored of it. 

“I know you’re awake,” Karna said and Nitya opened his eyes and looked up to Karna. He laid on the bed too and hugged the boy. “I heard you’re having jealousy issues?”

“Oh no. Of course not. That’s probably that guy making it big.” The boy lied smoothly. Indra’s influence. The budget demon lawyer taught his grandchild many unethical life pro tips. And Arjuna certainly didn’t like how jaded his son turned into just by one year living with his grandparents. 

Karna pat the back of the boy’s head. “You don’t have to lie. I am good at seeing trough lies.” 

“I want to stay with jiichans.” The boy said in a very sad voice. He didn’t meant it at all, but he wanted to see if Karna going to say no or not. If he didn’t, then he was no longer wanted.

“Is it not good to stay here?” Karna asked ans they looked at each other’s face.

“It’s better with jiichans, they teach me important life tips everyday.” Nitya said nonchalantly. Oh, he really didn’t know how unethical the things he was taught. 

“I don’t think you should take the tips seriously...” 

“Just send me there and we can be happy all together,” Nitya said with a very saddening tone. “I can be happy with jiichans and you can be happy with that creep and Swarna.”

“I can’t be happy if you’re not with me.” Karna replied back.

“I admit it that Swarna is way cuter than me. But you still like me, right?” 

“Of course.”

“Then, do you like me or Arjuna more?” The boy asked another question. “Choose one.”

And Karna had a trouble answering that. He knew the answer that he liked them both would no work and could further upset Nitya. He took a moment to think and the boy was getting impatient. Karna accepted his defeat and decided to lie. Truth just didn’t work fine with some kids. “You.”

“Really?”

“Ah,” Karna answered with a slightly off tone. He was never used to lying.

At least that answer satisfied Nitya. His logic was simple, he may not be the number one, but if he was number two, he would accept it. The next day, he told Arjuna how Karna said he liked him more than Arjuna. Proudly. 

When Arjuna eyed Karna, he could only silently shook his head.


End file.
